Hospitals El Clínic of Barcelona and Madrid Gregorio Marañon begin in January, the first test of an AIDS vaccine on 30 healthy volunteers. Spain has thus join 30 other countries around the world, currently testing a vaccine of this type in Phase I. At this stage it is to verify that the vaccine produces a response of the immune system prevents the development of disease. This vaccine is preventive, that does not prevent infection by the virus, but its development.

The team of researchers from the Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (NBC – CSIC) led by Mariano Esteban Rodriguez developed and patented the vaccine, which uses four antigen carried by a virus similar to that used for smallpox vaccine . After finding that functioned on macaques infected, clinical trials of the vaccine have been authorized by the ethics committee of the Hospital Clinic (Committee Etica del Hospital Clinic of Barcelona) and the Spanish Agency for drugs and sanitary products (Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios).

The project also has the support of the Foundation Eurovacc, Network for AIDS Research (Red Española de Investigacion en SIDA – RIS), Catalán the Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Vacunas del SIDA (HIVACAT) and the substance of Health Research ( Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias – FIS). The new vaccine offers new hope after the failure of the Merck vaccine last year, which revealed its ineffectiveness after being tested on 3000 volunteers.

Tags: AIDS, preventive, vaccine