Russia announced 'high readiness' of HIV vaccine

There are prototypes of HIV vaccines in Russia, said Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor. Writes about it Air force.

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“Russia has been participating in the development of a vaccine against HIV infection for quite a number of years, we have our own prototypes, we have our own vaccines. The Vector research center has its own prototype, and a number of other research organizations in the Russian Federation have their own prototypes,” Popova told reporters, answering a question from RIA Novosti.

It clarifies Interfax, Popova announced the “high readiness” of the vaccine, noting that the Russian Federation is “using all opportunities to complete the development of an HIV vaccine”

The head of Rospotrebnadzor spoke about the vaccine prototype on World AIDS Day.

“Vector” has been working on an HIV vaccine for more than 20 years, the first tests have already been carried out on volunteers, the head of “Vector” Rinat Maksyutov clarified in an interview with Ura.ru.

According to him, the prototype of the vaccine has successfully passed the first phase of clinical trials in volunteers, but research is now suspended. He did not comment on the reasons for the suspension of tests and the timing of their resumption.

Officials talked about the readiness of the Russian HIV vaccine for testing back in 2014.

“One of the prototypes of the Russian vaccine against HIV infection will be prepared by the end of this year and will enter the clinical research phase,” said the then head of the Ministry of Health Veronika Skvortsova.

“This [Popova’s statement about the availability of a vaccine prototype in Russia] is not news; Three vaccine candidates have been tested for several years, but so far no breakthroughs have been announced,” Igor Pchelin, chairman of the Steps AIDS Foundation, said in an interview with the BBC. Candidates for a preventive vaccine have not yet reached the second phase of research.

Infectious disease specialist and leading researcher at the Russian Scientific and Methodological Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS Oleg Yurin agrees with him: “Since 1991, I periodically hear [about the vaccine] that it will be “soon.”

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“Popova, perhaps, knows better, she deals with this more professionally, I treat HIV infection with medications, but I have not heard that there have been any great successes [in creating a vaccine],” says Yurin.

He notes that it is necessary to understand whether Popova is talking about “therapeutic” vaccines or preventive ones.

In addition to candidates for preventive vaccines, in Russia there are candidates for therapeutic vaccines - drugs that will make it possible to do without constant use of antiretroviral therapy. Now there are three of them: a vaccine created at the Institute of Immunology in Moscow, at the Vector Center for Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk and at the Biomedical Center in St. Petersburg. No success has yet been reported in their clinical trials.

In 2014, the Biomedical Center announced a second phase of research. Experts noted that if successful, a vaccine could appear in three or four years, but it never appeared. The Moscow city center for the prevention and control of AIDS reported in 2018 that trials of another therapeutic vaccine would begin in Moscow next year.

“This is one of the most promising therapeutic vaccines in the world, that is, a vaccine that will accompany an HIV patient. The principle of its action is such that the patient will not need to take medications for a long time. This is very important and reduces the cost of treatment,” said the capital’s chief freelance specialist on the diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection, Alexey Mazus. The completion of these trials has not been reported.

Several preventive vaccines are being developed in other countries. So, there is a candidate called HVTN 7026, the development of which began in 2016 in South Africa. These trials have so far been interrupted due to lack of meaningful results.

There is also a candidate for the MOSAICO combination vaccine, which was first tested in monkeys, and then received promising results. Since the end of 2019, clinical trials of this drug on several thousand people are underway in the United States. In February 2022, trials of another candidate vaccine called IMBOKODO will end. While its effectiveness is estimated at 67%.

Not a single vaccine showing a high degree of effectiveness against the HIV virus, which was discovered about 40 years ago, has not yet been invented, because it constantly mutates, which nullifies all attempts of scientists. Almost all known approaches have been tried to create vaccines against HIV, but all of them are still unpromising. In 2009, a vaccine developed in Thailand reduced the risk of contracting HIV by 60%. However, after three years of research, this figure dropped to 31%.

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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an infectious disease that affects the nomenclature system. Without treatment, the virus causes AIDS, a much more severe condition of the immune system in which a person can die as a result of any infection.

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