It's HIV Vaccine Awareness Day & New HIV Prevention Methods Show Promise

Today is National Vaccine Awareness Day and amfAR Institute for HIV Cure Research has released data on promising new HIV/AIDS studies.

New methods from amfAR aim to increase the body's power to find and destroy foreign cells, eliminating the infection. In addition to a vaccine, supplemental drugs called "vaccine adjuvants" are aiming to strengthen the immune system against this virus. "TLR Agonists" are another effective form of supplemental treatment: they help the immune system to find viral cells that may be adept at hiding from the unaided body.

Dr. Steve Deeks, one of the institute's head researchers, explains that while TLR Agonists on their own are unlikely to provide a final cure for AIDS, "a durable remission might be achieved at least in some people." Deeks elaborates that a study conducted in Boston using monkeys found that the TLR agonists were indeed able to strengthen subjects' immune systems,. Studies in San Francisco and Denmark have also shown promising results, although are as yet unpublished.

For more information on these new studies, and the full transcript pf amfAR discussion with Deeks, visit the AmfAR website.