There are two preventive and therapeutic vaccines against AIDS. The goal of the therapy is for the infected person to stop receiving antiretroviral treatment and stay on an undetectable viral load. The virus would not go away, but the daily treatment against the disease would go away.

Dr. Beatriz Mothe is one of the inventors of the therapeutic vaccine HTI, along with Christian Brander and Anuska Llano, in the Catalan institute IrsiCaixa, and has explained how the vaccine for El Salto has come to this situation: They obtained 40% of positive results in the trials presented in the Conference on Retrobiruses and Portunistic program.

“In 2007 we began to investigate what characterizes this percentage between 1% and 2% of the population capable of controlling the immune system by itself,” he explained. Following the investigation, the possibility was raised of creating a vaccine that would generate an immune response similar to what is already known. In 2015, they started testing on animals and in 2017 on humans.

At least 97% of vaccinees doubled the immune response to vulnerable aspects of the virus. It's now about going back to study stages I and II, but combining the vaccine with other medicines that can act on the immune system to help respond to vaccines. “HIV is hidden in many cells, in shy cells, so even if there is a response, if the virus does not appear, it cannot be eliminated. Therefore, in the next phase we will introduce immunomodulatory drugs,” says the doctor.

Mosaic vaccine

Beatriz Moth works at the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, one of the centers where Mosaico is carrying out the study of the vaccine preventiva.En she participates Johnson & Johnson. There is a confidentiality document about this vaccine, so the doctors who administer it cannot give more details than they are already public.

In Europe and America there are 3,800 men and in Africa 1,500 women participating in research. The test will last between 24 and 36 months and will determine its effectiveness in a real environment. In this trial, four doses of two vaccines are administered that aim to activate the immune system and protect against infection in groups considered at risk. The first two injections include genetically modified adenovirus, which carries genetic material from three proteins, and four other proteins. From that mixture, its name is born: mosaic.