New Vaccine Effective Against Tuberculosis And HIV

Clinical trials in China have shown that a vaccine developed by a team led by researchers from Fudan University, Shangai is effective against both HIV-1 and tuberculosis.

There are an estimated 14 million people worldwide who are affected by both diseases simultaneously.

The vaccine elicited an active immunal response from the body which included macrophages searching out and destroying the infections.

Tuberculosis is the third leading cause of death from an infection worldwide, and is surpassed only by HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. It is believed that around 2 billion people, or 28 percent of our worldwide population, are infected with M.tuberulosis, but a large number of these infections lie dormant and the individual does not exhibit symptoms.

HIV is known to play a large factor in a number of these tuberculosis infections becoming active, and many times, lethal due to the fact that HIV readily attacks and weakens the immune system.

The researchers attached four different antigens which elicit an immune response to the backbone of a HIV-1 p24 protein. The HIV-1 p24 protein offers an active immunity against HIV-1.

This vaccine was tested on a mouse model.