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Moderna announced Thursday that it's launched early-stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine. The biotechnology company has teamed up with the nonprofit ​​International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to develop the shot, which uses the same technology as Moderna's successful COVID-19 vaccine. (Kekatos, 1/27)

Moderna says its Phase 1 trial of the vaccine is testing a hypothesis the messenger RNA (mRNA) can induce and guide specific antibody cells towards maturing into broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAb). "The induction of bnAbs is widely considered to be a goal of HIV vaccination, and this is the first step in that process," says Moderna. Mark Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of IAVI, says he and his initiative are "tremendously excited" to be advancing in this new HIV vaccine design using mRNA tech. (Rogers, 1/27)

Moderna has begun early-stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine, the company announced this week. On Thursday, it administered the first doses of a shot it co-developed with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to volunteers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Like the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, the new treatment uses messenger RNA to “trick” the human body into producing proteins that will trigger an immune response. Moderna hopes the shot will induce a specific class of white blood cells known as B-cells, which can then turn into broadly neutralizing antibodies. Those proteins are “widely considered to be the goal of HIV vaccination, and this is the first step in that process,” according to the company. (Bonifacic, 1/27)

Today, HIV can be kept under control, but for most people, there is no cure because the virus can become dormant so HIV medicines have no effect. That could change in future, now progress has been made in waking up dormant viruses. People with HIV can take antiviral medicines that stop the virus from reproducing, giving them nearly normal lifespans. But HIV inserts copies of its genetic material into human immune cells, which then become dormant. As a result, people have to take the antivirals for the rest of their lives because, if they stop, viruses inside the cells wake up and start infecting more and more immune cells. (Wilson, 1/26)