A recent European Pharmaceutical Review article discussed a novel HIV vaccine that has shown promise in its first human Phase I trial. The vaccine is in development to become a primer that activates B cells through germline-targeting. The hope is that these specialized blood proteins could adhere to the HIV surface proteins that allow the virus to enter human cells, and disable them.
The Phase 1 human trial is considered a “landmark study” in the HIV vaccine field as it successfully primed the immune response to fight HIV-1. The strategy can also be applied to other pathogens in that it can efficiently stimulate rare immune cells that have specific properties.
