Virus Used to Transport HIV Vaccine Into Body May Be Behind Failure, Study Suggests

Preliminary results that suggested an increased risk for HIV infection in a vaccine trial that was ultimately halted in 2007, may have been caused by using the common cold adenovirus to transmit the vaccine into the body, according to a study published Monday online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Associated Press/Wall Street Journal reports. The news service writes, "the test vaccine itself didn't spread the illness, the team of researchers said," but the adenovirus could have provided HIV with more cells to infect by boosting the immune system response (11/16). "If our hypothesis is correct, then the use of an adenovirus vaccine against any disease in an area of high HIV prevalence may increase the risk of HIV infection," Steven Patterson, lead author of the study said. Scientific American examines what the study findings mean in the greater scheme of vaccine research (Harmon, 11/16).

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