POZ

…Another HIV Vaccine Trial Shuts Down

In the latest of a string of major setbacks in the search for an HIV vaccine, researchers have shuttered a trial after the experimental vaccine failed to both prevent HIV transmission and to reduce viral load in those who contracted the virus.

Called HVTN 505, the Phase IIb study was conducted by the NIAID-supported HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). It began in 2009 and enrolled 2,504 men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgendered people who have sex with men in 21 sites in 19 U.S. cities.

To read more, click here.

In Potential Vaccine Breakthrough, Antibody Response Outwits HIV

A new discovery could prove a major stepping-stone toward developing an effective HIV vaccine. In South Africa, two women’s immune systems reacted to changes in  HIV cells by producing potent “broadly neutralizing antibodies” that could kill 88 percent of HIV found throughout the world

Read more: http://www.poz.com/articles/AM_Vaccine_Antibodies_761_23071.shtml

Functional HIV Cure

An experimental therapeutic vaccine helps reduce viral load in people off antiretrovirals for six months. Click here for more.

From the Newsfeed - New Vaccine May Prevent Heroin Highs

Researchers have developed a vaccine that fights heroin highs, and they’ve proved its potential in animal trials, Heroin use and addiction, which costs the United States an estimated $22 billion in losses of productivity, criminal activity, medical care and social welfare, is also a high-risk mode of HIV transmission. The Scripps research team has begun a partnership with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research to examine the feasibility of developing a dual purpose HIV and heroin addiction vaccine. Click here for more.

A vaccine against heroine addiction?? Science blows us away everyday.

From the Newsfeed

The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has received $23.4 million in grants to investigate a vaccine to prevent HIV. Initially developed at IHV, the vaccine is called FLSC (Full-Length Single Chain). It’s designed to invoke immune responses against HIV-1, the most widespread strain of the virus. Click here to read more.