vaccine undergoing early trials in Sweden is reviving hopes for a so-called DNA vaccine against the AIDS virus. The vaccine has successfully completed the first phase of tests among 40 Swedish HIV-negative volunteers, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm said in a statement coinciding with World AIDS Day."It has been more effective than we thought it would be,” Eric Sandstroem, professor and head of clinical testing at the institute told AFP."We have also failed to find any vaccine-related side effects at all,” he added Thursday."There is every reason to be hopeful, even though the study is not finished,” Karolinska professor Britta Wahren who developed the vaccine said.Trials for new vaccines undergo a long, three phase process. In the first phase, the formula is tested on a small group of volunteers to see primarily whether it is safe, but also to see whether it induces a response from the immune system.After that it goes through progressively wider trials, among thousands of volunteers, to assess effectiveness.DNA vaccines are an experimental technology in which one or more genes coding for specific antigens -- surface proteins on the virus -- are directly injected into the body.The goal is that they induce an immune response so that the body’s defences recognize the virus if it ever enters the body."The technology is highly promising for producing simple, inexpensive and heat-stable vaccines,” the US-headquartered International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) says.However, there have been a lot of disappointments with this approach, said Sandstroem."There has been skepticism about whether it would in fact be possible to use DNA vaccines for HIV on humans. In that context our findings are really uplifting,” Sandstroem said.The researchers are now planning on entering a second phase of testing in which a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine is used to try to boost immune response.
