Powerful new HIV therapy ‘offers vaccination potential’

A powerful new HIV drug candidate that might work as part of an unconventional vaccine has been developed by US researchers.

Spearheaded by the Scripps Research Institute and involving scientists from more than a dozen research facilities, the project has resulted in the creation of a candidate that blocks every strain of HIV-1, HIV-2 and simian immunodeficiency virus that has been isolated from humans or rhesus macaques, including the hardest-to-stop variants.

It has also been shown to protect against much higher viral doses than occur in most human transmission and for at least eight months after injection, with initial studies using macaques demonstrating its effectiveness.

This compound is said to be the broadest and most potent entry inhibitor described so far and could represent a beneficial new means of HIV prevention.

Michael Farzan, a professor on the Scripps Research Institute's Florida campus, said: "Unlike antibodies, which fail to neutralise a large fraction of HIV-1 strains, our protein has been effective against all strains tested, raising the possibility it could offer an effective HIV vaccine alternative."

At the end of 2012, there were an estimated 98,400 people in the UK living with HIV. Of these, more than one-fifth were unaware they were infected.