Moderna to begin human trials of two HIV vaccine candidates using mRNA technology

Cambridge biotech company Moderna will use its now famous mRNA technology to launch human trials of an experimental HIV vaccine candidate, according to a new submission on the National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials Registry.

An effective vaccine to fight HIV, often considered the world’s best long-term solution to stopping the spread of the virus, has been researched for years with little success – although researchers now hope the technology The mRNA that was used to create a successful coronavirus vaccines can now take on this important task.

Moderna’s Phase 1 trial, which is not yet recruiting, will recruit 56 healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 50 who do not have HIV.

There are two versions of Moderna’s vaccine candidate. Some participants will get a mix of the two candidates while others will get only one. The trial is not blinded, so researchers and participants will know what participants are getting.

The study is expected to end in May 2023, according to the submission from the National Institutes of Health.

Moderna is working with several collaborators on the trial, including the University of Texas at San Antonio, George Washington University, Emory University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The vaccine candidate aims to induce a broad neutralizing antibody response, which is the biggest obstacle to developing an effective HIV vaccine, according to Dr. Alysse Wurcel, an infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center.

“To date, we have not been able to obtain broad neutralizing antibodies targeting HIV,” Wurcel told the Herald.

HIV mutates and interacts very quickly with the body, making it difficult to catch up, Wurcel said, adding that the virus also escapes many typical medical defenses and lurks in the body.

Wurcel said she viewed Moderna’s vaccine candidate with “cautious optimism.”

“The mRNA technology has worked really well for COVID, but at the same time there are many different types of viruses and the coronavirus is a very different type of virus from HIV,” Wurcel said.

Wurcel said the medical community has not even come close to an effective HIV vaccine yet, although there are already medical approaches to reduce the spread.

“We already have the tools to prevent HIV in terms of the drugs people take,” Wurcel said.

Such antiretroviral therapy helps people living with HIV reach undetectable and undetectable levels of the virus. Daily pills – which may also be available among at-risk populations in an attempt to avoid contracting the virus – have become more standardized in the gay community, but are less accepted among women, intravenous drug users, and women. communities of color, according to Wurcel.

Other strategies such as providing clean syringes, access to condoms and harm reduction strategies are also essential in the fight against HIV.

More than 1.1 million Americans are HIV-positive, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2019, the most recent year for which this information is available. In 2019, there were 15,815 deaths among Americans diagnosed with HIV.

New HIV infections have declined over the past decade. An estimated 1.5 million people worldwide contracted HIV in 2020, marking a 30% drop in new infections since 2010, according to HIV.gov.