---
title: "Human Trials for Genetically Engineered HIV Vaccine by Next Summer"
description: "Scientists at Oregon Health Sciences University have developed an HIV vaccine that utilizes a type of Herpes virus as it's backbone to safely confer HIV immunity. Human trials are expected to run in the summer of 2017."
date: "2016-06-20"
modified: "2016-06-20"
authors:
  - name: "Neil C. Bhavsar"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/neilbhavsar"
url: "https://futurism.com/human-trials-for-genetically-engineered-hiv-vaccine-by-next-summer"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "AIDS"
  - "genetic engineering"
  - "HIV"
  - "vaccines"
---

# Human Trials for Genetically Engineered HIV Vaccine by Next Summer

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Human-Trials-for-Genetically-engineered-HIV-Vaccine-moves-for-the-Summer-of-2017-A-4.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Futurism M.A\</em\>*

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been hassling humanity for [almost a century](<https://futurism.com/hiv-scientists-uncovered-the-birthplace-of-the-disease-that-refuses-to-die>). However, we *might* just be able to see an end to its reign of tyranny in a few short years—that is if the researchers at [Oregon Health Sciences University](<http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/foundation/about/ohsu-extra/hiv-vaccine-victory.cfm>) have anything to do with it.

## A Different Point of Entry: CMV

Vaccines customarily contain a weakened version of the virus at large so that your body's immune system is prepared in the case of an actual infection. With HIV, scientists took a slightly different approach by taking the [*cytomegalovirus*(CMV)](<http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2016/06/ohsus_hiv_vaccine_moves_toward.html>) and using it as a backbone to carry fragments of HIV.

This feat of genetic engineering utilized CMV as a medium for immunization because it's a type of herpes virus that infects over [50 to 70 percent of Americans ](<http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-hiv-vaccine-clinical-trials.html>)without causing disease. A harmless but active virus would alert the body's immune system and thereby generate antibodies for prolonged immunity against HIV. For trials, researchers tested the experimental vaccine using *RhCMV*, a strain of the virus that infects rhesus macaques, which allowed them to verify if the vaccine was effective against the monkey form of the AIDS virus, simian immunodeficiency virus(SIV).

## So...does it work?

The Oregon National Primate Research Center reported that up to 60% of tested rhesus macaques were immunized against infection with SIV; a ground-breaking level of success for a potential HIV or SIV vaccine.

As for next steps, the scientists involved from both UC Davis and Oregon Health Sciences are now working on a human CMV-based HIV vaccine for clinical trials. They hope to enroll their first volunteers in Phase 1 human trial in the summer of 2017.

While we are many, *many* years away from a conclusive vaccine for HIV, it is inspiring to see potential solutions emerge from a multi-disciplinary approach involving infectious diseases and genetic engineering—a quiet reminder of how we are moving toward the future.

A short video on the science of HIV/AIDS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDVNdn0CvKI

## Author
Science today, science tomorrow, science forever.

### Author social links  
[Facebook](<https://www.facebook.com/Neilogen>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-c-bhavsar-033225118>)  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/Neilcogen>)