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CANADIAN RESEARCHERS DISCOVERY COULD LEAD TO THERAPEUTIC VACCINES TO TREAT HIV INFECTED INDIVIDUALS

16 Nov 2005 - CANVAC, the Canadian Network for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, is proud to report the discovery of a method to stimulate the immune system of individuals chronically infected with HIV to fight the virus.
 
The team of investigators lead by Dr. Tania Watts, professor at the University of Toronto, publishes the results of their work today in the Journal of Immunology, a leading international journal. This work was performed in collaboration with other CANVAC scientists from Université de Montréal and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Using blood samples,
 
The researchers demonstrated that the stimulation of T-cells from chronically infected donors with a unique combination of two immune stimulating human proteins could restore the ability of these cells to fight the HIV virus. Previous work had shown that T-cells specific to the HIV virus are defective in individuals that have been infected with HIV for many years. In blood samples from these patients, the addition of a combination of stimulating molecules was able to restore their immune response to HIV to a level similar to that found in recently infected patients with relatively intact immune systems. These findings pave the way to the development of novel therapeutic vaccines to stimulate the immune system of infected individuals to keep the virus in check. Such vaccines could be used to complement current anti-retroviral drugs, decreasing their use and consequently alleviating their undesirable side effects.