HIV Vaccine Trials

Preparing an HIV vaccine has been one of the most unsuccessful endeavors taken up my men. Despite several attempts of HIV vaccine trials, nothing effective has yet been implemented. However, the researchers have not succumbed to the difficulty yet, and are diligently trying to overpower this disease and cure the people. When a vaccine is designed, it is implemented in three stages to seek its success. HIV vaccine trials have three main phases.These vaccines are not made from HIV virus, or HIV infected Human cells. Therefore, a person who has been administered with these vaccines, do not catch HIV infections from these vaccines at all. The vaccination simply determines the degree of response of the subjects' immune system to that vaccine.

Phase I

The phase I HIV Vaccine trial gives experimental HIV vaccines to a small group of HIV negative people. It aims to see the maximum immune response of that trial. Basically, this phase aims to find the safety, and possibilities of side effects of the vaccines. It is not conducted on HIV positive people, but on 20 to 100 HIV negative people. This phase of HIV vaccine trial continues for 12 to 18 months, to see the degree of safety the vaccine has. Since the geographical disperse of this phase is quite broad, it gives an idea, of which region is receptive to which kind of vaccine.

Phase II

This phase of HIV vaccine trial goes a step further to rest the safety. It involves hundreds of volunteers and can continue for more than three years. This phase gives more in-depth idea about the effectiveness of the vaccine, and how the human immune system responses to it. It gives a better idea about what additions to the vaccine would make the vaccine more effective. This in-depth and quantitative experiment clarifies the demands and needs of each region better, so that in Phase III, things can be implemented more successfully.

Phase III

Phase I and Phase II determine the best vaccine formulae. This comes to use in Phase III. Thousands of HIV negative volunteers are appointed to test the success and effect of these vaccines. Attires, different geographical regions are given different vaccines, according to the need of that region. This phase of HIV Vaccine trial can last for three to four years.

The HIV vaccine Trials network is an organization that contributes a lot on this entire process. It brings physicians, researchers, scientists, doctors and social activists from all over the world, under one platform. It celebrates 18th May as the World HIV vaccine day.

Latest approaches to conduct HIV Vaccine Trials include the use of modified vaccine Ankara, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, adeno- associated virus and codon optimized DNA. This formula assures better protection to the subjects. Upcoming technologies have made the identification of T cell receptor specificities and cytokine easier. A lot of research is being conducted to understand the entire human immune system, and immune responses of potential HIV patients. This will be of better help in the future of HIV Vaccine Trials.