MEDICAL BRIEFS: Medicl Center tests first AIDS vaccine

The University Medical Center is taking the lead in the race to find a cure for the AIDS virus. In June, the Center announced that the first DNA-based vaccine is being tested on HIV-positive patients. The vaccine is designed to delay or terminate the onset of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in people infected with the HIV virus. "As the first human trial of a DNA vaccine, this signals a new era in vaccine development and could revolutionize the way vaccines are produced," said William Kelley, chief executive officer of the Medical Center and Health System, in a statement. The first patient in the one- to two-year study, an HIV-positive 34-year-old woman, has received her initial injection of the vaccine and is currently undergoing tests as part of Phase I of the safety trial. Over the next year, 15 other patients will join in the study. The patients will be separated into three groups -- with each taking a different dosage. The brain behind the new technology is David Weiner, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Weiner and Apollo, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in suburban Malvern, systematically designed the vaccine from dead strands of the HIV virus and viral proteins. The clinical trial is being conducted by Rob MacGregor and Stephen Gluckman, professors of medicine and infectious disease . "The idea is to beef up the immune system against the virus and hopefully maintain [a] state of control and keep the virus infection silent," Weiner said in an interview last year. Earlier studies conducted by Weiner with mice, rats, rabbits and non-human primates have demonstrated that DNA injection does indeed stimulate the immune system. But researchers have not yet determined whether the treatment will prevent subsequent infection in HIV-positive subjects, Weiner said. The vaccine contains HIV genes that will instruct the virus to produce two specific proteins within the patients' cells. These proteins spark an immune response, causing the body to produce additional antibodies and white blood cells, known as killer T cells. Killer T cells kill HIV-infected cells. "This approach appears to have promise not only as a preventive measure against infection, but also as a treatment for many varied diseases," Weiner said. The vaccine could also be used to attack hepatitis, tuberculosis, certain cancers and autoimmune diseases. Weiner and his colleagues were given a $4.2 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop the vaccine.