The decades-long research into HIV vaccines laid the groundwork that enabled the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines. Now we need to speed up work in the HIV vaccine field. So says Prof Glenda Gray, chief executive and president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) as well as a co-principal investigator of the transnational HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN).
Speaking at a webinar co-hosted by the Stellenbosch University (SU) Department of Political Science and the Japanese embassy in South Africa in mid-March, Prof Gray expressed the hope that a reverse process would now occur, namely that Covid vaccines, in turn, would help speed up much-needed HIV vaccine development. “If it weren't for our previous input on HIV vaccines, we would never have been able to pivot our existing platforms – both the Ad26 vaccine regimen and mRNA – to develop very successful Covid vaccines," she said.
The webinar highlighted both the milestones and challenges in the response to the HIV epidemic, and the implications for global public health going forward. It also cemented relations between South African researchers and their colleagues in Japan.
Never give up hope
In her presentation, Prof Gray discussed some of the discoveries in HIV vaccine research in 2021, which she called a “pivotal year for HIV vaccine development". Elaborating on why it has been so hard to develop a vaccine to combat the “40-year unchecked HIV pandemic", she alluded to the enormous genetic diversity of HIV, which exceeds any other known pathogen. However, new technologies from the Covid experience – such as mRNA (a vaccine that uses a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA to produce an immune response) – have brought much optimism for developing a neutralising HIV vaccine.
Data from the recent AMP (antibody-mediated prevention) study has paved the way to provide high-grade protection from HIV acquisition, and it is now time to “make the public and funders aware of the need for an HIV vaccine", Prof Gray said. “We need to get regimens that elicit broadly neutralising antibodies – antibodies that can act against a wide range of viruses – into clinical trials to maintain momentum in the search for a vaccine."
She added that there had been huge expansion of HIV vaccine clinical research sites in Africa. “We must never give up hope that we can find an HIV vaccine," she urged webinar participants. “The ultimate discovery in science will be an HIV vaccine, and we should continue to pursue that ideal. It will be the greatest discovery ever made in medical science."
Japanese research holds great promise
Another significant contributor to the discussion was Prof Yasuhiro Yasutomi, director of Japan's Laboratory of Immuno-regulation and Vaccine Research. Prof Yasutomi discussed his team's groundbreaking research into a new vaccine technology that eliminated the Aids virus in crab-eating macaques – test monkeys native to Southeast Asia. The research involved a bacterium that secreted an immune-strengthening substance. His team produced a vaccine by mixing genes of this bacterium with genes of a weakened Aids-causing virus.
The monkeys initially became infected with Aids when the vaccine was administered. However, later tests did not detect the virus, and strong cellular immune responses were induced, he said. In fact, six of the seven vaccinated monkeys subsequently survived infection with a stronger virus that invariably kills victims. Blood and lymph node cells were taken from the six monkeys and injected into healthy monkeys. Four of them were found to be virus-free.
Prof Yasutomi said the team hoped to begin clinical testing on humans within the next five years. Tests will initially be done in Japan in the form of a tailor-made vaccine for individual patients, after which the team plans to produce a more general vaccine to be trialled in a larger group. At that stage, he would like to involve African countries.
He called for strong cooperation between Japan and South Africa in the quest to find an HIV vaccine. “Maybe our next step for clinical trials will be in your country," he said. “We need African people's help, not only as research participants, but to assist in combating HIV globally."
Timely and relevant
Akihiko Uchikawa, minister and deputy chief of the Japanese mission to South Africa, said the webinar was “timely and relevant against the current background of the global pandemic and its impact on HIV patients".
He added that South Africa had a history of fighting the disease and was regarded as a frontrunner in HIV patient care. For this reason, his embassy wanted to ensure that South Africans also knew about the latest research results from Japan. “This seminar may present possibilities for further collaboration between our countries in this field.
“The embassy of Japan would like to continue its contribution to academic exchange and collaboration between Africa and Japan, through SU as the hub of communication and activity. This partnership is even more relevant with the upcoming eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development scheduled for August," he said. “I hope today's discussion will serve as a stepping stone for a confluence of expertise, both in the context of Japan-South Africa relations and having a global impact on the future of humankind."
Click here to watch the webinar.
