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Biotech / Medical : VICL (Vical Labs) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tewdwr who wrote (1160)	12/9/1999 5:28:00 PM
From: Scott H. Davis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1972

South Korean scientists claim breakthough in developing AIDS vaccine SEOUL, Dec 8 (AFP) - A team of South Korean scientists Wednesday claimed a breakthrough in developing DNA vaccines to protect human beings against the virus that leads to AIDS. A spokesman of the team said that Jean Marie Andrieu of Laennec Hospital in Paris planned to visit here early next year to discuss human trials of the vaccination in France along with a South Korean pharmaceutical company. Other scientists here conceded that the vaccine may represent a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS, caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). But they cautioned that it was too early to say whether the vaccine could be applicable to humans. By using genes from an HIV-like virus found only in monkeys, the research team at Pohang University of Science and Technology here developed a vaccine, which "protected completely" monkeys against the virus, called SIV-239. "It marked the first time that apes have been protected after being challenged by SIV-239," the team leader, Professor Sung Young-Chul, told AFP by phone from the southeastern city of Pohang. "It is generally admitted among scientists should a vaccine protect monkeys against SIV-239, it would be highly possible for the vaccine to protect human beings against HIV as well," Sung said. In trials on monkeys, the new vaccine enhanced antibodies to SIV-239 virus and activated immune responses. In the early stages of the experiment, the vaccinated monkeys showed signs of infection. But later the vaccine stimulated the immune system, keeping the level of the virus under control. "They were all cured between four and 20 weeks," Sung told journalists. "This finding will open new possibilities to both prevent and cure AIDS in humans," he said. Human trials of a modified form of the vaccine will be carried out in the middle of next year, he said. Seong Baik-Lin, a researcher and professor at bioengineering department at Yonsei University in Seoul, said: "It is too early to predict whether the vaccine will be effective in fighting human AIDS." He noted that during the tests, monkeys were vaccinated before being infected with the SIVs (simian immunodeficiency viruses), similar, but not identical to HIVs. In order to prove the usefulness of the new vaccine, which has also shown signs of reversing the effects of the SIV virus, monkeys should be infected with the virus during future tests before being injected with the vaccine. He said the real vaccination tests on humans require two steps -- a toxity test on SIV-infected monkeys and a safety test on HIV-infected chimpanzees.