Recent Canadian led medical breakthroughs in the fight against HIV/AIDS

This Canadian medical breakthrough deals with a vaccine that can prevent people from becoming infected with the virus and additionally could provide a therapeutic function for people living with the virus.

What is it?
A vaccine that may provide immunity to HIV

When?
This vaccine has been 20 years in the making and could go for human trails as early as October 2009

Who is developing it?
The vaccine was developed by University of Western Ontario professor Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, who is being supported by Sumagen Canada Inc.

Why is this groundbreaking?
Although vaccines have been protecting people against viruses since 1798 when the first smallpox vaccine became available, there hasn’t been a vaccine to protect human populations against HIV.

In simple terms vaccines are produced by taking a virus, killing it, and injecting it into your bloodstream. Your immune system recognizes the virus and makes antibodies to defend against future attacks. However, the vaccination process with HIV was a great deal more difficult then a simple procedure.

The Canadian vaccine may soon be approved for testing in the United States. There are 27 other vaccines for HIV/AIDS being tested on people currently.

What separates the new Canadian vaccine from the rest is that it does not use purified pieces of the pathogen -- known as antigens, but instead uses a genetically modified whole virus. Finding the right mutation has been the product of 20 years of research at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

If successful, the vaccine will prompt the body to produce antibodies to prevent the virus from infecting cells, and prime T-cells to launch a ground war and destroy any cells harboring the virus.

The vaccine has already been tested on monkeys and rats without any identified adverse effects or safety risks

How long until this treatment is available?
If approved, the human testing for the vaccine will have two phases: The first will test its safety; the second will test how much of an immune response the vaccine stimulates. Even if approval is granted, it will likely take years before results from the human trials can be completed.

Possible issues:
Animals don't get AIDS the same way humans do, so it is difficult to determine whether new vaccines show any promise.

For more information:
CTV- HIV vaccine makers ready for human testing
Calgary Herald- Canadian-made HIV vaccine close to human trial
London Free Press- AIDs vaccine research nears tests on humans