A microscopy image of vaginal tissue from a female macaque vaccinated with a version of the vaccine. The white line is the basal or base layer of the mucosal epithelium, which is the interior tissue lining; cells stained in blue have built up along the lining through the menses cycle; and cells glowing green contain the vaccine, forming the top layer of the lining, which pathogens would encounter first.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPart of the issue is that HIV spreads through the body relatively quickly. In response, these researchers had the idea of developing a vaccine that acts specifically on the areas of the body where the virus typically enters \u2013 the mucosal lining of the vagina or rectum. The concept is to give the virus a hard time before it even gets a chance to get a foothold in the body. \u201cI had this idea as a postdoc,\u201d said Marie-Claire Gauduin, a researcher involved in the study. \u201cI thought it had to be na\u00efve because nobody was talking about it. It was so obvious and simple to me; I thought someone would have already done it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine, meaning that the viral particles within contain the full genetic code, albeit with some alterations to prevent the virus from replicating. The researchers describe the resulting particles as \u201csingle-cycle\u201d vaccine virus. These modified viral particles can enter cells in the mucosa, but cannot proliferate and leave the cells again. The immune system can recognize that these cells are \u2018infected\u2019 and so generates antibodies against the virus, which will give any real virus attempting to enter the mucosa a hard time.<\/p>\n
Cleverly, the vaccine targets cells in the mucosa that give rise to new cells, helping to keep the vaccine effective for as long as possible. \u201cThe idea is that as long as the vaccine is in the mother cells, it will be passed on and be present in all new epithelial cells in these regions,\u201d said Gauduin. \u201cI did not think it would work so well, but it did!\u201d<\/p>\n
In tests in non-human primates, the vaccine candidate helped animals to avoid infection in the first place, and once infected they showed a better ability to control the virus and showed no disease symptoms. It\u2019s too early to know if the vaccine will work in humans, but the researchers have recently received some funding to develop it further.<\/p>\n
Via: Texas Biomedical Research Institute<\/p>\n
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