US- Moderna to Begin First Time in Human Trial for mRNA Vaccine for the prevention of HIV
According to a new post to ClinicalTrials.gov, Moderna is looking for 56 people ages 18 to 50 who are HIV-negative to test a mRNA-based vaccine against HIV.
The Phase I trial is expected to launch on August 19, 2021 and end in the spring of 2023. The company is working with The University of Texas at San Antonio, George Washington University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Emory University.
The company has two HIV vaccine candidates, mRNA-1644 and mRNA-1644v2-Core. Both were tested for safety before use on humans.
A piece of messenger RNA that codes for a part of the virus in question is enfolded into a vector. Once injected, the mRNA travels inside cells, where the cells’ genetic machinery produces the virus protein. The immune system is then trained to recognize the virus based on that protein so that when it encounters the virus, it attacks it.
HIV over the decades has mutated into numerous variants. The mRNA approach is viewed as easily modifiable, which could be an advantage over other vaccine techniques.
Other types of vaccine technology use inactive viruses, or in some cases, even live viruses, the so-called “live vaccines.” They often use other less dangerous viruses as vectors and have molecules from the target viruses fused to them in order to train the immune system.
mRNA vaccines don’t contain any parts of the virus.