Experimental AIDS vaccine being tested on humans

ATLANTA - An AIDS vaccine developed at Emory University is being tested on human subjects, university officials said Friday. <br> <br> Thirty volunteers are enrolled in the initial series of clinical trials this week at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, as well as the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Washington-Seattle and the University of California at San Francisco, according to a release posted on Emory&#39;s Web site. <br> <br> The experimental vaccine, which had only been tested on rhesus macaque monkeys, was developed by Emory virologist Harriet L. Robinson, along with scientists at the National Institutes of Health. <br> <br> The AIDS vaccine applies a new two-step strategy but neither component incorporates the actual HIV virus into subjects. Emory researchers said it induces the immune system to respond to specific features of the HIV virus so the system can respond to the actual virus if it should appear. <br> <br> ``It is important to remember that this clinical trial represents the culmination of years of work in basic science and preclinical studies involving animal models that have greatly expanded our knowledge of immunology,&#39;&#39; said Rafi Ahmed, director of Emory&#39;s Vaccine Center. <br> <br> ``Every new AIDS vaccine candidate that enters human studies brings us closer to understanding HIV and the human immune system, and to ending the worldwide AIDS pandemic.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Funding for the human trials was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH. Robinson, who heads the division of microbiology and immunology at Emory&#39;s Yerkes National Primate Research Center, said it would be at least five years before the vaccine would receive approval. <br> <br> Robinson has been working on the AIDS vaccine for 11 years. <br> <br> The first clinical trial, planned to run for a year, will focus on assessing the safety of a DNA primer vaccine among HIV-negative volunteers. A second human trial will concentrate on the safety of a booster vaccine. <br> <br> ``We will have a third Phase I trial to test the combined regimen of the DNA and booster portions of the vaccine strategy,&#39;&#39; she said.

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