Scientists piggyback experimental HIV vaccine on cold viruses

Scientists report progress in their bid to develop ways to piggyback an HIV vaccine on germs that cause colds. In the new study, Harvard researchers said they successfully used cold viruses to deliver an experimental HIV vaccine to humans. The approach “appears to be safe and well-tolerated, and the injection induces a moderate immune response against HIV in humans,” said Dr. James Crowe, director of Vanderbilt Vaccine Center in Nashville. He was not involved in the study. The research doesn’t mean that a long-sought HIV vaccine is near; these scientists focused on developing better ways to deliver a potential vaccine into the immune system. Researchers have long sought to develop a vaccine against HIV, but the virus is especially stubborn. “Most experimental vaccines tested to date don’t seem to induce strong or protective immune responses,” Crowe said. Even when they work well, he said, they tend to only prevent infection with a single strain and...