Moderna administers first HIV vaccine during clinical trial 

The biotechnology company Moderna announced the application of the first trimeric RNA vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The inoculation was performed on one of the participants of a clinical trial that began this week to test the efficacy of the vaccine.

"Developing a vaccine regimen that induces sustained protective levels of HIV-neutralizing antibodies in humans has been difficult to achieve. At Moderna, we believe that mRNA offers the opportunity to take a new approach to this challenge," reported Stephen Hoge, Ph.D., president of Moderna.

ANNOUNCEMENT 📢: We are proud to announce that the first participant has been dosed in the Phase 1 study of mRNA-1574, our experimental human immunodeficiency virus (#HIV) trimer #mRNA #vaccine candidate. https://t.co/etMyVK1SoH pic.twitter.com/tNdwR8xZAK

— Moderna (@moderna_tx) March 14, 2022

The HIV vaccine clinical trial is funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD) AIDS Division and is expected to include approximately 100 HIV-negative individuals between the ages of 18 and 55, according to Aristegui Noticias.

Moderna confirmed in January the start of the clinical trial of the vaccine at George Washington University. According to the pharmaceutical company, 56 AIDS-free volunteers will receive different doses of the vaccine, as well as boosters.

In addition, another 48 patients will receive one or two doses of the eOD-GT8 60mer mRNA vaccine (mRNA-1644) and 32 of them will receive the Core-g28v2 60mer mRNA booster vaccine (mRNA-1644v2-Core).

The virus responsible for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has caused the death of millions of people since the first cases were reported during the last century. By 2020, an average of 37.7 million people were living with HIV worldwide, according to UNAIDS data.