Man Who Discovered HIV Finally “Discovers” the Vaccine

Dr. Robert Gallo, described this breakthrough vaccine as “just another protein” but different than anything that has been tried before. Gallo, a top doctor pointedly fingered for discovering HIV in the early 1970s has come out now saying he has discovered the vaccine.

HIV Virus

Gallo’s team has been developing a vaccine with an unusual method of protection for 15 years and is now launching the first clinical trial of it in collaboration with Profectus BioSciences, a biotech that spun off from IHV recently. Known as a phase I study, the trial expects to enroll 60 people and will simply assess safety and immune responses of the “full-length single chain” vaccine. “It’s a terrible name,” says Gallo, who is not one to mince words.

HOW IT WORKS:

The vaccine contains a version of HIV’s surface protein, gp120, engineered so that it links to a few portions of a protein called the CD4 receptor. When HIV infects cells, gp120 first binds to the CD4 receptor on white blood cells and then “transitions” in such a way that hidden parts of the virus are exposed, allowing it to bind to a second receptor on the immune cells called CCR5. Once bound to both receptors, HIV can enter the white blood cell and establish an infection. The IHV vaccine aims to generate antibodies that bind to HIV’s gp120 when it’s in this transitional state, ultimately blocking attachment to CCR5, aborting the infection process. The development of the vaccine is being led by IHV’s George Lewis, whose team includes Antonio DeVico and Timothy Fouts.