Thread by @AurelianoStingi

COVID and #HIV

how the current pandemic may help the fight against
AIDS.

a THREAD about HIV #VACCINE 1/n

Needless to say, HIV is a pandemic, each year kills around 1 million people around the world. While in some rich country the disease is managed with potent and efficient drugs in some other is a death sentence.
2/n

ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids

Attempts to create a vaccine are countless and started almost 30 years ago. But HIV is a treacherous enemy. let's understand why. 3/n

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Recently we meet our nightmare #SARS_CoV_2 and we realize how much is mutating reading about new #variants.
Ok, do you think that Sars-CoV2 is mutating a lot?

oh boy

HIV has the HIGHEST mutational rate for a biological entity. 4/n

The picture is extremely complicated but represents how much HIV mutate on a protein (up) compared to spike mutation (down).

Is quite clear, no game.

5/n

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

So the main problem with HIV vaccine is exactly the mutation rate. More the virus mutate harder is to design an efficient vaccine( that's why we need to repeat every year the flu shot). If we present an old version of HIV to our body we will be not ready to fight it. 6/n

the second major problem is about HIV target cells, while Sars-CoV2 attacks cells provided with ACE2 receptors (lung cells, heart etc) HIV only attacks T lymphocytes (CD4+). This creates a kind of paradox, indeed the virus destroy the cells that are supposed to fight it 7/n

Ok let's recap:
1) HIV cause AIDS and is a major health burden
2) HIV mutation rate is extremely high
3) HIV attacks and destroy the immune system
4) developing a vaccine is hard

We need something REPRESENTATIVE (able to follow HIV mutation) and SAFE
8/n

Basically, we need a vaccine that is absolutely safe and could reproduce with high fidelity some HIV structures.
Wait a moment, we have it!

mRNA VACCINES!

9/n

mRNA vaccines are flexible ( you can change sequence according to new mutation) are SAFE ( is just a piece of RNA inside lipids) and are able to induce cellular and humoral immunity. 10/n
futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.221…

Tomorrow #moderna will launch the first HIV mRNA vaccine trial. Is expected to finish in 2023 ( unlike Covid19 trial it will take years to be completed, luckily HIV is less diffused). 11/n

biospace.com/article/modern…

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:
1) SARS-CoV2 pandemic boosted the research/investment and attention over mRNA vaccines
2) mRNA vaccines bear a HUGE potential in terms of therapeutic use
3) in science everything is connected and we shouldn't be afraid of innovation

PS

GET A COVID19 VACCINE

is a Phase 1 trial in which the aim to evaluate safety and immunogenicity

clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05…