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Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

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Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#251

Post by bluGill »

macilacilove wrote: post #141
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #10

As I understand it, the reason an HIV vaccine has been so difficult to create is that HIV mutates so easily. I understand the basics behind how mRNA vaccines are generated, but I don't understand why this approach would be expected to have any more success in evading the high mutation potential of HIV than other vaccine types. After all, it was even a concern with new coronavirus variants that the original Moderna va…

> As I understand it, the reason an HIV vaccine has been so difficult to create is that HIV mutates so easily. Nope. There are exactly two species of HIV since at least the '80s. HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV however can trick the immune system into creating non-neutralizing antibodies, that can't fully prevent the progression of the infection. If you run a large pharma company you probably already make a lot of money from lo…

This conspiracy theory missed something important: competition. There are other companies with their own treatments either one the market or in development trying to take away your customers. If you can find a better treatment and roll it out you get all that money, if you don't you risk someone else finding it first and taking away all your sales anyway.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#252

Post by el_benhameen »

drewcon wrote: post #230
el_benhameen wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epstein-barr virus is in that same category of “lots of latent, lifelong infections that are maybe linked to a ton of age-related diseases in weird ways”. No idea if it’s a potential target, but would be pretty cool!

Ask and you shall receive: https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2022/01/phase-i-...

Very cool!

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#253

Post by maxerickson »

mlyle wrote: post #21
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #10

As I understand it, the reason an HIV vaccine has been so difficult to create is that HIV mutates so easily. I understand the basics behind how mRNA vaccines are generated, but I don't understand why this approach would be expected to have any more success in evading the high mutation potential of HIV than other vaccine types. After all, it was even a concern with new coronavirus variants that the original Moderna va…

There's some known HIV "bnAbs", or broadly neutralizing antibodies. The thing is, these are not the antibodies most humans develop in response to HIV. Previous HIV vaccine attempts have only done a fair job at eliciting these broadly neutralizing responses. e.g. SAV001, a "whole killed" HIV vaccine, only produces broadly neutralizing antibodies in about a third of recipients (and less broadly neutralizing response in…

The IAVA press release discusses some of this:

https://www.iavi.org/news-resources/press-releases/2022/iavi...

Sounds like the mRNA platform is being tested as a delivery mechanism for immunological work that was done separately.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#254

Post by bluGill »

abeppu wrote: post #159
meepmorp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 out of 7 macaques didn't get infected after 13 weekly (anally administered) exposures to SHIV. The other 5 averaged 8 exposures before infection took place vs 3 exposures in the control group. That's actually pretty good at preventing infection - 28.5% avoided infection completely, with the remainder clearly having a much more robust immunity than control.

I mean, it seems like it did _something_ meaningful. But if you were part of an at-risk population, how promising would you really consider an animal trial that, for most treatment subjects, delayed infection by 5 weeks? Note, these animals had received multiple vaccines/boosters spaced out over a year before they were exposed to SHIV, i.e they spent 10x as long being vaccinated as they resisted infection.

Better than nothing. Maybe not enough for me to stop whatever other practices I'm doing to reduce risk, but it seems like a good shield in case one of those others fail.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#255

Post by s1artibartfast »

voz_ wrote: post #199
mleonhard wrote: post #168

The them.us article [0] says: > but we’ll be praying ... that by next year, LGBTQ+ communities around the globe will have a new reason to celebrate. This perpetuates the myth that HIV is mainly a problem for gay people. Can we change to another article, such as [1]? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports Moderna's HIV vaccine research [2]. [0] https://www.them.us/story/hiv-aids-vaccine-human-trials-mode... [1]…

I don't understand how a fact is a myth? https://www.reuters.com/article/health-global-aids/men-with-... There is no shame in it, different diseases and viruses affect different people differently, because of different behaviors. It does not make Gay people worse, or better. It just means the actions they participate in, as a demographic cohort, is more likely to lead to an HIV infection when normalized for factors a…

Men who have sex with men are vastly more likely to get HIV, but account for a minority of the annual infections globally. [1] Sex workers and customers make up a larger percent of infections. Most HIV infections occur in women opposed to men.

I don't find the language particularly offensive, but I cant imagine them replacing LGBTQ+ in the sentence with sex workers.

Then again, this is a publication for lbtq audiences, not sex workers.

https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#256

Post by db1234 »

Does anyone know if mRNA tech can be potentially used to cure food allergy in the future? I know that the pattern is to train immune system to recognize a foreign object and attack it but is it possible to train immune system using mRNA to not attack in certain cases? I did come across a paper from 2018 regarding potential use of mRNA to fight food allergy but I haven't come across any updates since then.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#257

Post by missedthecue »

solarkraft wrote: post #43
thesis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you’re being downvoted all much… well actually no it’s pretty obvious. I think you’re right though. The current Covid-19 vaccines are proven to lose efficacy over time. Will the same thing happen with this one as well? It’s a good question.

> well actually no it’s pretty obvious If you think they're right you may not understand why the comment is being down voted. > The current Covid-19 vaccines are proven to lose efficacy over time. Will the same thing happen with this one as well? Like with any vaccine: Probably. > It’s a good question It's pretty besides the point. To recycle my car brakes analogy: They also lose efficacy over time, yet are widely co…

I think it's just the speed at which it has happened though. Most children born in developed countries today receive a slew of vaccines which will provide immunity to catching those diseases for decades. It's discouraging that we're looking at shot no. 4 for the mRNA covid vaccines within a year and a half, and despite even that, infection rates are still very strong.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#258

Post by hatware »

msla wrote: post #164
hatware wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

So you think everyone working in the medical and pharmaceutical fields is an utterly amoral antisocial personality disorder case? Because that's what it would take for your conspiracy theory to work. If you honestly can't understand compassion, well...

That's rich. People are killing themselves, and tons of scheduled medical procedures are still being postponed.

You'll reap what you sow.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#259

Post by vsef »

jl6 wrote: post #232
Nbox9 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CDC backing up this claim. Having an undetectable viral load prevents transmission during sex —- but likely not during needle sharing. The answer to why seems to be an obvious “because there are less virus particles”. I’m linking a couple of scientific studies following couples having condomless sex where one partner is HIV positive, on ART with low viral load. Among the about 2000 couples in these studies there were…

It does sound suspiciously like wishful thinking though, doesn’t it? You can’t sample all parts and all fluids of someone’s body all the time. Maybe trace undetectable levels of the virus can be transmitted, and of course they are going to look like a “no transmission” case if you lack the ability to detect that amount of virus. And that’s either not a problem (if trace levels = no symptoms), or a ticking time bomb w…

There is no such thing as a trace/undetectable transmission. These studies have been going on a long time now with large numbers of participants, replicated in multiple countries/different populations. The results are very strong and not based on measuring viral levels.

Re: Moderna’s HIV vaccine has officially begun human trials

#260

Post by s1artibartfast »

moooo99 wrote: post #183
mleonhard wrote: post #168

The them.us article [0] says: > but we’ll be praying ... that by next year, LGBTQ+ communities around the globe will have a new reason to celebrate. This perpetuates the myth that HIV is mainly a problem for gay people. Can we change to another article, such as [1]? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports Moderna's HIV vaccine research [2]. [0] https://www.them.us/story/hiv-aids-vaccine-human-trials-mode... [1]…

> This perpetuates the myth that HIV is mainly a problem for gay people. Can we change to another article, such as [1]? But how is that a myth? The US Gov site [0] that is linked in the engadget article literally states that > HIV continues to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Fruther down: > Gay, bi…

This number changes dramatically when you look globally. MSM is about 23% of new infections

https://www.avert.org/global-hiv-and-aids-statistics#footnot...

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