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ERADICAIDE EradicAide is designed as an HIV therapeutic vaccine, composed of six synthetic peptides to stimulate a killer T-cell response to clear HIV-infected cells. This drug has demonstrated the ability to reduce viral load in SHIV infected rhesus monkeys to undetectable levels, reduce transmission of virus and delay the progression to AIDS for as long as three years following viral challenge based upon a single series of treatments. EradicAide was developed by researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the former head of vaccine development for Johnson & Johnson. EradicAide was developed based upon a cell-mediated immunity approach to controlling HIV, by stimulating disease-fighting cells, called killer T-cells (cytotoxic T cells) whose job it is to clear infection. When EradicAide vaccine was administered in a series of vaccinations in non-human primates, the treatment was able to suppress viral load to undetectable levels for as long as three years following viral challenge. Studies of long-term nonprogressors, individuals who are HIV-infected but do not get AIDS, have identified certain cell-mediated immunity characteristics of these individuals that allow them to control HIV. HIV down-regulates immune cell receptors (HLA-A and HLA-B) with Nef protein, but not HLA-C, where some of the EradicAide peptides are displayed to induce killing of HIV-infected cells, similar to the immune system of long-term nonprogressors. 
EradicAide was designed so that part of the peptide cocktail circumvents HIV's ability to down regulate antigen presentation through HLA-A and HLA-B, but not HLA-C to turn on cytotoxic T cells to clear HIV infected cells. In non-human primates, this drug was able to reduce viral load to undetectable levels for up to three years following viral challenge after a single series of treatments.Currently, HIV vaccines in clinical trials are injected. Animal studies conducted by the Company have shown the feasibility for oral and nasal delivery of EradicAide, which would make it a viable candidate for use with oral HIV drugs. The Company is currently working on different adjuvants for optimization of EradicAide. Technology: EradicAide EradicAide is based upon Cell-Mediated Immunity Technology, a patented immunotherapeutic vaccine strategy. A unique feature of this new treatment is that it is designed to not elicit an antibody response. There are two primary disease-fighting mechanisms in the immune system that vaccinology seeks to employ to fight threats from outside the human body: antibody immunity and cell mediated immunity. In the first mechanism, antibodies in the bloodstream try to intercept and neutralize viral pathogens before infection of cells occurs. In the second, specialized cells fight infection after it occurs by seeking out and killing already infected cells - before they have a chance to release new generations of virus particles to the blood stream. Both mechanisms employ specialized messenger cells, which stimulate the body to make populations of additional disease-specific antibodies or killer T-cells. In an antibody response, special antibody-producing B cells recognize specific proteins on the surface of viruses and lock themselves to these proteins. Antibodies that recognize these specific proteins, and the associated virus, are produced and the immune system is subsequently programmed to create additional, specific antibody-producing B-cells. This virus-specific antibodies lock onto the circulating virus particles, and the antibody-virus complex is then transported to areas in the body where other immune system cells ingest and destroy them. There are two basic problems with HIV treatments designed to elicit an antibody response. First, HIV has evolved with a special adaptation that enables it to hide from an effective antibody response. Second, and somewhat controversial, is the issue of antibody enhancement of the infection. A leading research team at M.D. Anderson believes strongly that antibodies escort HIV to the very cells they seek to infect. Evidence supporting this contention was published in the scientific journal Nature (Follicular Dendritic Cells and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infectivity). In cell mediated immunity, after a virus has penetrated the cell and released its genetic material, its viral proteins are fragmented by the infected cell. These viral protein fragments are then transported within the infected cell through a mechanism, called the MHC (major histocompatibility complex) Class I pathway, to special places on the surface of the infected cell. Here the viral protein fragments are displayed to the immune system as evidence the cell is infected and should be destroyed before it can produce many new virus particles. Killer T-cells recognize the presence of these displayed viral proteins as a signal to kill the infected cells and also as a signal to the immune system to produce an army of killer T-cells which are pre-programmed to seek out and kill off the specific viral infection. |
