The trial, called ‘STEP’, was halted in September 2007 because preliminary results suggested that people who had been given the vaccine were more likely to be infected with HIV than people who had been given a placebo.

The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London, King’s College London and Royal Holloway, University of London, say their findings mean scientists may have to rethink other vaccines they are developing for diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which are delivered in the same way, using the same virus ’shell’.

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An international research team has demonstrated that treating HIV-AIDS with interleukin-2 (IL-2) is ineffective. As a result, the researchers recommend that clinical trials on this compound be stopped. Their finding was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in an article co-authored by 14 researchers, including Dr. Jean-Pierre Routy of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).

IL-2 is currently used as a complement to highly active antiretroviral therapy (known as HAART), which is administered to patients with HIV-AIDS. Since HAART controls replication of viruses in the blood, doctors thought that IL-2 would help regenerate more CD4+ immune cells, which serve as an indicator of viral progression. It was thought that IL-2 increased the natural immunity of patients by helping immune cells mature and multiply.

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“Developing an effective AIDS vaccine has eluded scientists because the virus is tricky,” says Guido Silvestri, MD, a Yerkes affiliate scientist and director of clinical virology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and lead author of the commentary. Silvestri, along with co-author James Else, DVM, associate director for veterinary resources at Yerkes, writes, “Over 25 years after the discovery of HIV as the etiological agent of AIDS, no effective vaccine for the disease is available.”

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Several new studies presented at the American Urological Association’s (AUA) 104th Annual Scientific Meeting suggest that the use of statins–commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol–may benefit men with prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction or lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Several key research studies highlighting these benefits will be presented during a special panel for the media on Monday, April 27 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. during the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA).
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