Immunitor at 3rd Virtual HIV/AIDS Congress to commemorate AIDS day
Immunitor Company announces presentation of a paper ‘Mucosal AIDS vaccines’ at the 3rd Virtual HIV/AIDS Congress which
started on internet on October 14, 2002 and closed on World AIDS day on December 1, 2002.
The complete html or PDF version of the paper can be found at http://www.aidscongress.net/article.php?id_comunicacao=143.
The paper is presented in Basic Science section. Other topics covered at this Congress include: Social and Behavioral
Science; Epidemiology, Prevention and Public Health; Clinical Science and Care; and HIV and Tuberculosis. This Congress
is the third annual event organized by AIDSPortugal.com - the non-profit Portuguese association SIDAnet which unites
medical professionals and social workers to provide treatment and counseling for people with AIDS.
The presented paper summarizes as to what is the best strategy for developing a potent AIDS vaccine since all feasible
and obvious approaches in making AIDS vaccines have been tried in past two decades without much of success. The
presentation draws attention to the fact that new thinking and revision of prevailing dogmas needs to be in place if we
really want a vaccine. Conventional envelope-based antibody-inducing vaccines do not appear to hold a promise and
cellular immune responses, especially those mediated by CD8 cytotoxic/suppressor (CTL) and CD4 helper T lymphocytes,
seem to be needed to control HIV. Vaccines capable of inducing cell-mediated responses are, therefore, considered
critical for controlling the spread of HIV. DNA-based vaccines are currently thought to be an answer but will they
fulfill the promise? The review of state-of-the-art is provided to summarize what we know and still don’t know. The
focus of the discussion is primarily on mucosal vaccines – relatively new area in AIDS research. The update on V-1
Immunitor, the oral AIDS vaccine produced in Thailand, is provided within this context. The paper ended with a
conclusion that without departure from the uninspiring consensus no substantial progress in AIDS vaccine field can be
envisioned.