AIDS Vaccine Nearing Reality

The world could have a new vaccine designed to kill the AIDS virus according to an Atlanta-based group.

It is a scientific advance that could save tens of millions of lives, and it is being developed on the campus of Emory University.

Work on the vaccine has been going on quietly for the last 15 years, but it now appears to be in the final stretch of development.

GeoVax, Inc. at Emory is smaller than many home garages. Yet the modular lab may be where the battle to end the reign of one the world's biggest killers could be won with a vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus.

"We're getting results back that indicate we're getting very strong immune responses in these individuals, these people who received our vaccine," said Don Hildebrand, the president and CEO of GeoVax Inc., the company spearheading the research in collaboration with Emory, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.

The vaccine uses a decoy virus with some of the genetic material of the AIDS virus, but not enough for anyone to ever get the disease itself, according to Dr. Harriet Robinson, of the Emory Vaccine Center.

"It exposes your immune system to a pathogen, like a virus or bacteria, so before you've seen it, you set up memory cells," said Dr. Robinson. "Then these memory cells mobilize, should you get the actual infection."

The test trials have been so successful that the vaccine is now more than a year ahead of schedule.

"Actually another two trials are starting later this year, using different combinations of our vaccine and different administration programs," said GeoVax Inc. CEO Hildebrand. "And following that, presuming everything goes well, we'll be starting a phase two program at the end of the year."

The vaccine works using a one-two pharmaceutical punch to prime the body then kill the virus.

"It raises both antibodies that can block the virus and it raises white blood cells, called T cells, that can kill the virus infected cells," said Dr. Robinson. "So it really has two methods of controlling an HIV/AIDS infection once it enters the body."

The vaccine's success with the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, the monkey version of the AIDS virus, has been nothing short of remarkable. Not only did the vaccine prevent the infection, it kept it under control for the monkeys that already had it, putting it in a kind of remission.

Researchers believe the same benefits await people affected by the disease in as little as three to four years.