pharmaceutical giants Merck and Aventis Pasteur decided to combine their experimental vaccines against HIV in a double blow. In tests on monkeys, the combination vaccine may work better than one of the two companies separately in human trials strategies. "We were driven by the data," says Emilio Emini, who heads the vaccine program against Merck HIV in West Point, Pennsylvania.
Merck and Aventis Pasteur, based in Lyon, France, the developed two vaccines against AIDS that the point of HIV genes into harmless virus. as explained Emini, Merck found in monkey studies between various combinations of vaccines against the other that the adenovirus-based HIV vaccine company continued with a booster dose of canarypox Aventis / vaccine against HIV has led to some of the strongest immune responses they observed. human trials of the Merck vaccine followed by Aventis preparation are awaiting US regulatory approval and could start in the coming months.
the proposed clinical trial is "an experience that needs to be done," said the vaccine against AIDS researcher Norman Letvin of Beth Israel Deaconess medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Letvin, who has directed several of these comparative studies in monkeys himself, said there are "very good data" that the smallpox virus such as canarypox can powerfully stimulate the so-called killer cells, warriors Immunity that selectively target and destroy cells infected with HIV and other invaders.
Merck also new data from a study of the human being. the company announced ago 2 years on monkey studies that led the company to launch human trials of vaccines against AIDS this year with a different strategy ( science , April 6, 01, p. 24). first they were vaccinated with an HIV gene sewn into a circular piece of bacterial DNA. they were then stimulated with the adenovirus / vaccines against HIV. But Emini said the first results of DNA studies in humans have disappointing. "Unfortunately, the DNA does not work as well in humans as it does in monkeys," he said.
Emini and colleagues plan to present their new monkey studies and human data from their trials, at a meeting of AIDS in Banff, Canada, which begins March 29.
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