The same technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines is being tested to prevent HIV.
“The whole idea is very similar to the emergence of COVID vaccines,” said Dr. David Diemert of George Washington University. “It’s to produce antibodies in the person who gets the vaccine that will then interfere with the virus if that person ever comes into contact with the virus and to prevent infection.”
GW is one of four test sites in the country that are vaccinating healthy adults with an experimental HIV vaccine using messenger RNA technology.
Messenger RNA vaccines deliver instructions, training cells to make a protein that primes the immune system, producing antibodies that will protect from infection if the real virus enters the body.
“It really was groundbreaking and it proved that the technology works, it’s safe,” Diemert said.
The technology has been pivotal during the pandemic, and scientists are hopeful it could help end the HIV epidemic, too.
Read more at NBC 4 Washington.