HIV was identified in 1984. Researchers have yet to develop a vaccine. Does the public understand that developing a vaccine isn't necessarily easy?

Not sure that's exactly right. HIV is related to Human T-cell Lymphotrophic Virus 1 (HTLV-1), the etiologic agent of Adult-T cell Leukemia/Lymphoma (ATL). THERAVECTYS has developed an anti-HTLV-1 vaccine, based on its lentiviral vector technology inducing a broad, intense and long-lasting cellular immune response after intra-muscular injection.

So HIV is an example of a virus that has eluded a vaccine -- but researchers were able to develop a vaccine to the related virus, HTLV.

Simply because you can create a vaccine for a virus doesn't mean it's necessarily easy to create a vaccine for a related virus.

@flipper1966 THERAVECTYS was the first company to have launched a clinical trial based on lentiviral vectors technology with the [b]THV01 vaccine for the treatment of HIV[/b] , [b]the THV02 vaccine for the HTLV-1 was developed from the THV01[/b].

For those who dont know, Lentiviral vectors are a type of retrovirus that insert their dna into cells in order to propagate via protein. From these proteins you get short chains of amino acids, that form peptides. When many of these amino acids chain together they create polypeptides. These for the building blocks for the proteins that retroviruses use. So Thv02 for HTLV and THv01 for HIV are therapeutic vaccines, designed to stimulate cd8 t cell response via the cytokines that help educe an immuno response.

Basically these are designed to help the body boost immune cell production of cells that can recognize infected cells, and yes the relationship of htlv-1 and hiv-1 were connected in the development of these immnotheorpy processes. antiretroviral treatment via therapeutic vaccines and other forms of antiretroviral treatments are the current way which HIV positive patience can achieve remission.

The antigen response has been different from HIV vs HTLV which is why there is differences in effectiveness. Since Isolating the peptide sequences that the immune system can recognize is difficult, so even if both viruses work the same way they dont use the same protin structures.

@Kazuya69 Coronaviruses and HIV are indeed similar in at least one way. They both trigger antibody-dependent enhancement:

[quote]Also, for unclear reasons, some previous vaccine candidates against coronaviruses like SARS have triggered “antibody-dependent enhancement,” which makes recipients more susceptible to infection, rather than less. In the past, vaccines against H.I.V. and dengue have unexpectedly done the same.[/quote]

@flipper1966 "[b]we know from studies on SARS-CoV-1 and the related MERS-CoV vaccines that the S protein on the surface of the virus is an ideal target for a vaccine.[/b] In SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, this protein interacts with the receptor ACE2, and antibodies targeting the spike can interfere with this binding, thereby neutralizing the virus. The structure of the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 was solved in record time at high resolution, contributing to our understanding of this vaccine target (Lan et al., 2020a, Wrapp et al., 2020). Therefore, we have a target antigen that can be incorporated into advanced vaccine platforms."

"[b]Several vaccines for SARS-CoV-1 were developed and tested[/b], including recombinant S-protein-based vaccines, attenuated and whole inactivated vaccines, and vectored vaccines (Roper and Rehm, 2009). Most of these vaccines protect animals from challenge with SARS-CoV-1, although many do not induce sterilizing immunity. In some cases, vaccination with the live virus results in complications, including lung damage and infiltration of eosinophils in a mouse model (e.g., Bolles et al., 2011, Tseng et al., 2012) and liver damage in ferrets (e.g., Weingartl et al., 2004). In another study, vaccination with inactivated SARS-CoV-1 led to enhancement of disease in one NHP, whereas it protected 3 animals from challenge (Wang et al., 2016). The same study identified certain epitopes on the S protein as protective, whereas immunity to others seemed to be enhancing disease. However, in almost all cases, vaccination is associated with greater survival, reduced virus titers, and/or less morbidity compared with that in unvaccinated animals. [b]Similar findings have been reported for MERS-CoV vaccines[/b] (Agrawal et al., 2016, Houser et al., 2017). Therefore, whereas vaccines for related coronaviruses are efficacious in animal models, we need to ensure that the vaccines, which are developed for SARS-CoV-2, are sufficiently safe."

this comes from the current SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines: Status Report
As reported form all current labs working on a vaccine. Including the national Labs I was involved with.

US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health


There is alot more to the over all repost on each of these viruses. The problem is developing a SAFE vaccine. Not that we have never created one.

@flipper1966 "He said the challenge is that coronaviruses have historically been hard to make safe vaccines for, partly because the virus infects the upper respiratory tract, which our immune system isn't great at protecting."

This is very true and the main issue with any covid vaccines,

@Kazuya69 Time will tell. Thanks for your informed input.

@Paliglass [quote]It's like comparing small pox to chicken pox.[/quote]

Seriously?

Why not compare the small pox virus ([i]variola virus[/i]) to chicken pox virus ([i]varicella-zoster virus[/i]), which is a herpes virus (chickenpox is a type of herpes)? In some ways they are indeed comparable:

[quote]Vaccination with [b]smallpox vaccine[/b] has been used for recurrent [b]herpes simplex[/b] in Europe for several years, but the treatment has had little publicity in America. When patients with recurrent herpes simplex are vaccinated with ordinary smallpox vaccine, the attack is shortened, and definite immunization to further attacks follows.[/quote]

@Kazuya69 My point was that throwing a lot of money at a problem doesn't necessarily get results. And I think you proved my point.

@flipper1966 Yeah that aspect is true to a degree, The more funding you have to go around, the more multiple sources and labs can work on the same thing.
For viral pathogens this has proven to be quite effective. As the more differing labs work on a vaccine they share data and can develop a solution far more quickly then if only a handful of places are working on the same issue. You are correct that just throwing money doesn't solve the problem, but often lack of funding is what drastically slows down the search for a solution.

The point in my response is this is the same virus being worked on that acts and behaves basically the same way within the body(even if effects shown vary), where as cancer is literally different for every person even who have the same type of cancer.

@Kazuya69 Not all experts are as optimistic as you.

[quote]“My optimistic side says the virus will ease off in the summer and a vaccine will arrive like the cavalry,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a preventive medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University medical school. “But I’m learning to guard against my essentially optimistic nature.”[/quote]

@Tastyfrzz[quote] Oh, you can make a vaccine [/quote]

It's almost 40 years and still no vaccine for HIV.

@flipper1966 no workable ones. They've created and tested lots of worthless ones.

@canusernamebemyusername

[quote]Live-attenuated retroviruses have been shown to be effective retroviral vaccines, but currently little is known regarding the mechanisms of protection. Friend virus has been used as a model to analyze characteristics of a live-attenuated vaccine in protection against virus-induced disease.[/quote]

@HannahSky 🤔

@flipper1966 if not when

@MarineBob Yet another failing of unfettered capitalism, you are so right about that.

@MethDozer Word of advice. Don't throw away your mask.

@MethDozer kicking some ass is the point lol I'm on another topic here lol

@flipper1966 Fuck no.