AIDS Vaccine in Four Years?

Twenty-five years ago a research team led by Luc Montagnier at the French Pasteur Institution in Paris was responsible for identifying HIV, thus changing the face of AIDS/HIV research, prevention and management. When approached by a colleague for help on determining the cause of AIDS, Montagnier eagerly accepted the challenge and he and his team pinpointed the virus that caused AIDS, naming it LAV (Lympadenopathy-Associated Virus). A year later, a research team from the United States, led by Robert Gallo, confirmed the virus and gave it a different name of HTLV-III (Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type III). After much debate and controversy over who first discovered the virus, the two teams accepted the terms of being co-founders of the newly named HIV.

In 2008, however, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Montagnier alone for the discovery of HIV because, according to one member of the Nobel panel, “there was no doubt as to who made the fundamental discoveries.” Sweden’s Karoliniska Institute which consists of the Nobel Assembly hailed the work of Montagnier and his team by stating that “The discovery was one of prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment.” Montagnier is a leader in the search for a cure for AIDS; he co-found the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. He also helps direct the Program for International Viral Collaboration and has received numerous awards for his work in HIV/AIDS aside from the Nobel Prize, including the Gairdner Award, the Lasker Award, the King Faisal Foundation International Prize and the Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur.

With his extensive background in the fight to cure HIV/AIDS, it should not be taken lightly when Montagnier recently stated, “There could be an AIDS vaccine in four years.” His prediction is that within the next four years, scientists and researchers will develop a therapeutic vaccine meant to stop HIV/AIDS in its tracks. At 76 years old, Montagnier thinks that with the proper funding, teams of researchers will be able to create a therapeutic vaccine (as opposed to a preventive vaccine) that will produce favorable results in helping those patients who have been infected with the virus. Montagnier states, “I think it will be possible with a therapeutic vaccine rather than preventative vaccinations. We would give it to people who are already infected.” The difference between a therapeutic vaccine and a preventive one is that the therapeutic vaccine stops the virus or disease in its tracks once a patient has contracted it. A preventive vaccine is just that…preventive (as we see with, say, flu vaccinations).