Why Haven't We Found A Vaccine For HIV

about 2 months ago

The year 2019 and 2020 were the Covid-19 years and although we are less than 5 years to when Covid-19 was a thing, we already have a vaccine for it but we have been cohabitating with HIV for decades now and we haven't had a vaccine for it.

While in the early days, there were a lot of discrimenations and stereotypes sorrounding the funding of HIV but in recent times, there have been a lot of funding a lot of research has been done towards getting a vaccine for this virus but why haven't we been able to get a vaccine for this virus because it looks like this virus is making it very difficult for this vaccine to exist. After Covid, we have been seeing a lot of fire in the bones of researchers to get the HIV vaccine as it looks it has injected a new hope in getting positive result.

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It isn't like we haven't achieved any milestone because being tested positive for HIV was a death sentense in the past but we have gone past that now as people who are confirmed to be HIV positive can still live their best and full lives since they are able to take antiretroviral therapy. Since the word prevention is better than cure reigns supreme, scientist have also been able to help with prevention of HIV with the help of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) but this is not recommended for everywhere, only if you are at a high risk of contracting the virus.

Even the prevention drugs that these people have to take on a daily basis can be a menace as missing days can be unwise so why instead of going through this route, why can't we all just get a jab and get it done with once and for all but the vaccine has become difficult. Since 1987, there have been several clinical trials but non has shown enough success to get an FDA approval.

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When a pathogen enters the body, the immune response of the body works to fight the pathogen and this is what the body uses in remembering pathogens after vaccination but this is not the same with HIV as the immune response don't do anything. When the virus enters the body, it disguises itself in sugar coat molecules thereby preventing its protein from being detected by the immune system like the T-cell, also the protein of HIV mimics the protein of the human immune cell after which it then begins to destroy the immune cells. With the mimicry of the HIV protein to Human Immune Cell Proteins there is a high chance that if a vaccine is created to fight the virus, it would mistake our immune cells for the virus.

Since HIV is a virus that mutates very fast even inside the same host, it can make it very difficult to for a vaccine designed for a particular HIV virus to prevent a mutated version of the same HIV strain so any antibodies created against one cannot work for long. Scientist have been working on Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies (bnAbs), and let me quickly say that the B Cell is responsible for creating antibodies. The body doesn't wait for a pathogen to come in before the body starts to create antibodies, actually, the B cells attaches to the pathogen and creates antibodies. If the antibodies doesn't fit with the pathogens, they begin to mutate so as to fit the pathogen.

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HIV Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies (HIV bnAbs) happens when the immune system is able to make antibodies against a less variable part of the virus. HIV bnAbs is produced in about 25% of people living with HIV naturally but these antibodies aren't enough or perfect. While this is helpful, it also have some autoreactive issues. The more active the bnAbs, the more autoreactive it is, so if scientists intend to use it when looking into vaccine, then there will be autoreactivity as the virus is being tackled so this makes it difficult.

While some scientists are looking at BnAbs, some are looking at using mRNA vaccines like the Covid-19 type where the protein is injected instead of the virus itself. Scientists are looking for a particular protein that is peculiar to all Strains of the HIV mutation so the immune system can trained to create antibodies against it. This is a better option than injecting a person with a weakened form of the virus which can mean that the person can accidentally suffer the disease which is a chronic disease with no cure.

In the future we might have a vaccine that will work, maybe mRNA or any other type of vaccine but I doubt we will use life attenuated vaccines or vaccines with dead viral particles since they are both not a choice currently.