The news of an HIV vaccine appROACH in development under J & J has flooded the websites recently, and the reason why it is eye-catching may be because of the following text under the title: J & J announced 100% production of antibody.

Mosaic Vaccine: "Antigen cocktail therapy" with different antigens to stimulate the production of antibody

According to reports, the main reason for the significant effect of this HIV vaccine lies in the containing of various HIV antigens in the vaccine, i.e., the so-called Mosaic Vaccine. appROACH vaccine fuses the 3 main antigen proteins Env, Gag and Pol for different subtype strains of HIV vaccine.

It’s worth mentioning that the appROACH vaccine in development by J & J is not the exclusive HIV Mosaic Vaccine product in development. This May, the U.S. Inovio Pharma Company released the clinical trial results of the vaccine Pennvax-GP in development under it: this Mosaic Vaccine, earlier than J & J’s appROACH vaccine in development in obtaining the clinical trial results, contains 4 HIV antigens, and produced HIV antibody in almost 100% subjects. The most effective HIV vaccine in development could only produce protective effect to 31% subjects before the Mosaic Vaccine. In contrast, if the 66% protection rate of the Mosaic Vaccine in development of J & J mentioned in the report was true, then the performance such vaccine in development could be called "very good".

It is not hard to find that the classical HIV therapeutic regimen, i.e., the cocktail therapy, uses the method of combining various antiviral drugs for treatment, while HIV Mosaic Vaccine eventually stimulates human bodies to produce HIV antibody via various antigens: there seems to be certain similarity between the two, and the Mosaic Vaccine can also be called "antigen cocktail therapy" used to prevent HIV infection.

The success of appROACH vaccine in development remains unknown

According to the public information, the number of subjects of the clinical trial of Pennvax-GP was 94, while that of appROACH vaccine was 393. It is quite necessary to conduct more meticulous and deeper research with a large sample of subjects considering the effectiveness and safety of such new vaccine on human bodies, which is also the only way for it to get more convincing. According to reports, J & J has proceeded to conduct the Phase IIb clinical trial aiming to evaluate the vaccine effectiveness. The appROACH vaccine in development of J & J has now been completed Phase IIa clinical trial, and there are still several clinical tests for its final marketing. We shall remain cautiously optimistic about such vaccine in development for now at least.

There is no doubt that if human beings could be fortunate enough to achieve effective prevention of infection of some HIV subtypes via the above Mosaic Vaccine, this would be a big step forward in combating HIV infection.

The conquering of HIV infection: still a long way to go

Looking back through history, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) was found in 1981. According to statistics, the global accumulated population that died of HIV infection was about 36 million, and the population of HIV carriers exceeded 35.30 million by the end of 2016, with the annual increase of 2 million infected persons. The world’s first anti-HIV infection drug Zidovudine was marketed in 1987. Human beings’ efforts in combating HIV infection have never stopped over the nearly 40 years.

The most effective treatment method against HIV infection is still the cocktail therapy so far. The implementation of the cocktail therapy on early HIV infected persons enables patients to easily keep the state of long-lasting viral load suppression in clinical treatment, thanks to the potent antiviral drugs, and eventually, the effective use of the cocktail therapy makes HIV infection gradually turn into a controllable chronic disease clinically, which has been great progress.

However, the effective prevention or radical cure of HIV infected population still seems to be impossible on current medical level. The main reason for the difficulty in curing or preventing such infection lies in the HIV reservoirs in the body, i.e., the CD4 cells distributing in the infected person’s intestinal tract, spleen, and lymph node, etc. Research has confirmed that HIV can hide in those reservoirs and remain dormant to form latent infection, and once the dormant HIV is reactivated, the active infection will begin. All the present HIV vaccines in development, including the above Mosaic Vaccine, are based on the virus antigens to trigger body's immune response to produce antibody; the antibody produced by relying on such mechanism can remove the free HIV but cannot remove the viruses hiding in the virus reservoirs, which fundamentally means that such Mosaic Vaccine still fails to realize effective prevention, let alone cure, of infected patients.

There is still a long way for human beings to conquer HIV. A healthy and happy life is always the surest path for human beings, wherever and whenever we are, and no matter whether the HIV infection has been conquered or not.