New NIH study supports immune therapy treatment model
New NIH study supports "old" immune-based treatment model for HIV/AIDS
The study described below strongly supports the immune therapy approach to HIV infection, first suggested in the late 1980's, officially submitted as a "treatment model" to the NC DHHS in April, 1992 and later published in the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, Volume 4, Number 1 (see http://www.healthchina.org/document/doc20041027.html on website www.healthchina.org )
Your comments and suggestions for rapidly developing this immune-based HIV treatment method will be deeply appreciated by the 40+ million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS. They deserve the best possible treatment at the lowest possible cost, truthful answers to their questions, and ethical, compassionate help from all of us.
Sadly, even the newest and most expensive drugs have failed to cure AIDS, or add years of life to those with HIV infection. After 20 years of costly failure by the pharmaceutical industry, it is time to try the logical, common-sense approach which has proven effective in fighting other viruses such as rabies and hepatitis: vaccines and antibodies.
It is too late to save the millions who have already died of AIDS, but there is still hope for a longer life for those now infected with HIV.
Sincerely,
Gary J. Minter
---------------------------------------
Science 9 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5779, pp. 1530 - 1533
DOI: 10.1126/science.1124226
Reports
Preserved CD4+ Central Memory T Cells and Survival in Vaccinated SIV-Challenged Monkeys
Norman L. Letvin,1,2* John R. Mascola,1 Yue Sun,2 Darci A. Gorgone,2 Adam P. Buzby,2 Ling Xu,1 Zhi-yong Yang,1 Bimal Chakrabarti,1 Srinivas S. Rao,1 Jörn E. Schmitz,2 David C. Montefiori,3 Brianne R. Barker,2 Fred L. Bookstein,4,5 Gary J. Nabel1
Vaccine-induced cellular immunity controls virus replication in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)–infected monkeys only transiently, leading to the question of whether such vaccines for AIDS will be effective. We immunized monkeys with plasmid DNA and replication-defective adenoviral vectors encoding SIV proteins and then challenged them with pathogenic SIV. Although these monkeys demonstrated a reduction in viremia restricted to the early phase of SIV infection, they showed a prolonged survival. This survival was associated with preserved central memory CD4+ T lymphocytes and could be predicted by the magnitude of the vaccine-induced cellular immune response. These immune correlates of vaccine efficacy should guide the evaluation of AIDS vaccines in humans.
1 Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
3 Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
4 Department of Statistics and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
5 Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria.
Rapid Response:
New NIH study supports immune therapy treatment model
New NIH study supports "old" immune-based treatment model for HIV/AIDS
The study described below strongly supports the immune therapy approach to HIV infection, first suggested in the late 1980's, officially submitted as a "treatment model" to the NC DHHS in April, 1992 and later published in the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, Volume 4, Number 1 (see http://www.healthchina.org/document/doc20041027.html on website www.healthchina.org )
Your comments and suggestions for rapidly developing this immune-based HIV treatment method will be deeply appreciated by the 40+ million people worldwide infected with HIV/AIDS. They deserve the best possible treatment at the lowest possible cost, truthful answers to their questions, and ethical, compassionate help from all of us.
Sadly, even the newest and most expensive drugs have failed to cure AIDS, or add years of life to those with HIV infection. After 20 years of costly failure by the pharmaceutical industry, it is time to try the logical, common-sense approach which has proven effective in fighting other viruses such as rabies and hepatitis: vaccines and antibodies.
It is too late to save the millions who have already died of AIDS, but there is still hope for a longer life for those now infected with HIV.
Sincerely,
Gary J. Minter
---------------------------------------
Science 9 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5779, pp. 1530 - 1533
DOI: 10.1126/science.1124226
Reports
Preserved CD4+ Central Memory T Cells and Survival in Vaccinated SIV-Challenged Monkeys
Norman L. Letvin,1,2* John R. Mascola,1 Yue Sun,2 Darci A. Gorgone,2 Adam P. Buzby,2 Ling Xu,1 Zhi-yong Yang,1 Bimal Chakrabarti,1 Srinivas S. Rao,1 Jörn E. Schmitz,2 David C. Montefiori,3 Brianne R. Barker,2 Fred L. Bookstein,4,5 Gary J. Nabel1
Vaccine-induced cellular immunity controls virus replication in simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)–infected monkeys only transiently, leading to the question of whether such vaccines for AIDS will be effective. We immunized monkeys with plasmid DNA and replication-defective adenoviral vectors encoding SIV proteins and then challenged them with pathogenic SIV. Although these monkeys demonstrated a reduction in viremia restricted to the early phase of SIV infection, they showed a prolonged survival. This survival was associated with preserved central memory CD4+ T lymphocytes and could be predicted by the magnitude of the vaccine-induced cellular immune response. These immune correlates of vaccine efficacy should guide the evaluation of AIDS vaccines in humans.
1 Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
2 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
3 Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
4 Department of Statistics and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
5 Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nletvin@bidmc.harvard.edu
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests