A CLINICAL trial for an HIV vaccine has been launched by British researchers.
The test aims to evaluate its safety, tolerability and ability to prime the immune system.
Thirteen healthy HIV-negative adults, aged 18 to 65, will receive one dose of the jab and then a booster after four weeks.
University of Oxford experts are testing HIVconsvX — a mosaic vaccine which combines a range of HIV variants that makes it potentially applicable to all global strains.
Unlike most HIV jab candidates, it induces T cells rather than B cells.
Lead researcher Tomáš Hanke is a professor of vaccine immunology at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford.
He said: “An effective HIV vaccine has been elusive for 40 years.
“This trial is the first in a series of evaluations of this novel vaccine strategy in HIV-negative individuals for prevention and in people living with HIV for cure.”
The researchers hope to report on the results of the trial by next April.