A study funded by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, suggests that vaccines might play a role in curing the disease
A recent study funded by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, suggests that therapeutic vaccines might play a role in curing the disease . On the eve of HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, observed on May 18, amfAR aims to create awareness and to find a cure for HIV/AIDS by 2020 by funding vaccine-based research initiatives around the world.
The report highlights that the combined use of therapeutic vaccination and specific drugs that can reactivate latent reservoir virus (Kick and kill strategies) hold the promise to achieve a functional cure for HIV infection.
The recently completed BCN01 vaccine trial consisted in a ChAd. HIVconsv and MVA.HIVconsv prime boost vaccination in early treated individuals (<6 months from HIV acquisition) and was able to redirect CTL responses towards highly conserved regions of HIV-1. Likewise, romidepsin (RMD) has been shown in earlier studies to induce HIV-1 transcription demonstrating that significant reversal of HIV-1 latency is possible so that a combination of these two approaches may help achieve the goal of a functional cure of HIV. BCN02-Romi (NCT02616874) is an ongoing single-arm proof-of-concept study enrolling 15 individuals rolled-over from BCN01 trial.