New study explains why HIV vaccine backfires

Several studies have discovered that HIV vaccines can backfire and lead to increased rates of the infection, as opposed to reducing or eliminating the viral pathogen. Now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences might have an explanation as to why this occurs. “One of the reasons why it has been so difficult to make an AIDS vaccine is that the virus infects the very cells of the immune system that any vaccine is supposed to induce” senior author of the new study and chief of microbiology & immunology at Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, Guido Silvestri says. Vaccines that have been developed have largely focused on stimulating antiviral T cells. Of the two main groups of T cells, CD4+ T cells are the “helper” cells that are known to be the targets of the virus in both human and...