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Cold virus may have caused failure in clinical study of HIV vaccine
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Some immunizatins may bring increased risk of HIV infection
According to a report by MSN and the Associated Press - The failure of an experimental AIDS vaccine trial two years ago may have been due to the common cold virus.
The vaccine was intended to block the spread of HIV, which causes AIDS. But the test was canceled after volunteers who got the shots were more likely to become infected than those who got a dummy shot.
It appears that the problem may have been due to the common adenovirus which was used to carry the HIV material to trigger a memory response in the event of a new exposure.
This conclusion was reached by researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. m researchers reporting in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Although the test vaccine did not spread the illness, it did trigger a memory response since so many people have had prior exposure to the adenovirus. The body when faced with a virus that has been previously experienced responds by producing large number of immune cells called CD4 T-Cells. The problem is that these cells are the ones that the HIV virus infects and the large numbers of cells provided HIV a place to grow once the person was exposed to the virus.
Of concern is that adenovirus is also used in vaccines for tuberculosis and malaria. Places in the world where those illnesses are common also have a high rate of HIV. This means that vaccination for TB and malaria could raise a risk of increased likelihood of contracting HIV.
The findings may lead to a reexamination of the way vaccines are constructed.
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