A single injection for newborns could protect them against HIV for years, study suggests
According to a study, a single injection at birth can protect children from HIV for years.
The study is one of the firsts that shows that the first weeks of life offer a critical window in which the immune system is naturally more tolerant, that is, the most appropriate time to offer gene therapies to be rejected in an old age.
Researchers hopes that gene therapy jab can be used to fight against pediatric infections in high -risk areas in the future.
Microbiology and immunology associate professor at the Tulan National Primerial Research Center in the United States, Amir Ardeshir, said, “Every day, about 300 children are infected with HIV.”
“This approach can help protect newborns in high -risk areas in the most vulnerable period of their lives.”
The study published in the journal NatureHIV created a gene therapy that programmed cells to produce fighting antibodies.
An animal study that tested injection on non -human primates found that it protected them from infection for at least three years without the need for a booster shot. However, this was only if injection was applied in the first month of life.
In contrast, birth authors announced that those receiving gene treatment eight and 12 weeks after birth did not tolerate treatment.
“This is a critical and a treatment that matches when these mothers with HIV in limited resources are likely to look at a doctor, Ard Ardeshir said.
“As long as treatment is delivered near the birth, the baby’s immune system will accept it and believe that it is part of it.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), globally, 1.3 million women and girls living with HIV become pregnant.
However, if they do not take medication, according to WHO data, during pregnancy, birth, birth or breastfeeding, HIV’s transmission rate from mother to child is between 15 and 45 percent.
Although antiviral therapies can suppress and limit infection, they may have committed commitment to treatment and doctor visits after birth in regions with limited access to health services.
This gene therapy uses a harmless virus that can give genetic code to cells but is different from a vaccine. This virus was injected into muscle cells and instructed to produce antibodies that could neutralize multiple HIV strains.
Researchers have found that the injection has found that injections needed to work for previous studies.
However, researchers say that they are injected into muscle cells and say that they are micro -factors that continue to produce only these antibodies ..
Newborns showed more tolerance to JAB, which prevented infection during breastfeeding. However, old babies and children are more likely to produce anti-drug antibodies that cover treatment.
In addition, releasing a fetus from gene therapy to antibodies before birth helps elderly babies accept treatment.
However, since it is tested only on animals, researchers still do not know whether they will work on human children.
If it is successful, this treatment can significantly reduce HIV transmission rates to mother-child in high-risk areas such as under-Sahara Africa, where 90 percent of pediatric HIV cases can be found.
Ardeshir said, “It was not possible to succeed even 10 years ago,” he said. “This was a huge result, and now we have all the materials that get HIV.”
