PROCAARE: Prevention - Vaccine - gp160

["Gerard J. Nau (Jerry)" <gnau@usa.healthnet.org>]

Prevention - Vaccine - gp160
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The April 27 issue of Lancet reports in its News section preliminary 
results of two vaccine studies.  One was conducted by a collaboration 
between the US Department of Defense, the Walter Reed Army Institute, the 
NIAID, and the vaccine's producer, MicroGeneSys, using recombinant 
gp160.  The second was conducted by the Canadian HIV Trials Network, 
though the antigen is not specified.  Both studies examined the effects 
of vaccination on progression to AIDS or death in asymptomatic HIV+ 
subjects with relatively high (>400 and >500 respectively) CD4 counts.  
The American study demonstrated new cellular and antibody responses to 
the vaccine and an increase in CD4 counts.  However, neither study 
demonstrated clinical benefit.  Lancet's article does not specify a 
published reference.