1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,680 Frankfurt, the financial capital of Germany. 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:08,360 The city has one of the highest percentages of HIV infections and 3 00:00:08,360 --> 00:00:10,080 patients with AIDS in the country. 4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:14,360 The estimated total of HIV-infected people in Germany, 5 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:18,920 Austria and Switzerland is around 80,000. The UK has 68,000. 6 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,520 This is low compared with the worldwide figure of 40 million, 7 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:26,440 but EU leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about the rise in rates of 8 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:27,320 infection. 9 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:32,800 Carmen had no thought of AIDS when she had sex with her boyfriend at the age of 10 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:33,720 19. 11 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,800 He was her first partner and she did not know he was HIV-positive, 12 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,720 neither did he. 13 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,280 Up to this point I'm fine, thank goodness, but one day I will have to begin 14 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:45,120 treatment 15 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:50,120 and then I'll have to start taking drugs. 16 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:54,280 Doctors regularly monitor the level of Carmen's T-cells, 17 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,200 one of the cells that fight off infections in her blood. There is nothing else they 18 00:00:58,200 --> 00:00:59,440 can do at this stage. 19 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:04,200 What worries them is that more and more cases like Carmen's are being diagnosed 20 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,520 as AIDS begins to affect Europe's heterosexual population. 21 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:14,520 The majority of the people infected with HIV are 22 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:15,720 homosexual men, 23 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:20,320 but we do see an increasing number of patients who do not belong to this 24 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:21,360 high-risk group. 25 00:01:21,960 --> 00:01:25,560 We particularly see more and more young women 26 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:29,000 who got infected by their sexual partners without knowing it. 27 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,480 This means the virus disease is spreading more and more 28 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:36,360 outside the high-risk groups. 29 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:40,120 What makes HIV so dangerous 30 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:44,520 is that it infects cells in the human immune system such as helper T-cells. 31 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,600 As the number of these cells decline, the body becomes progressively more 32 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:50,320 susceptible to infections. 33 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,680 Eventually the number of immune system cells are so depleted 34 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,360 the body cannot protect itself, the condition called AIDS. 35 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:00,840 In this research laboratory in Rixensa in Belgium, 36 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,840 scientists search for new ways to halt the pandemic that has killed 30 million 37 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:06,480 people since the mid-eighties. 38 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:11,320 Virologist Gerald Voss is coordinating a team of genetic engineers from Belgium, 39 00:02:11,320 --> 00:02:12,960 France and the United Kingdom. 40 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:19,960 Their aim is to develop a vaccine against HIV. 41 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,600 In the developed world, so-called anti-retroviral treatments 42 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,600 have reduced both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection. 43 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:31,760 But the aim of the team is to create a vaccine, not to relieve symptoms, 44 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:33,760 but to stop the virus entirely. 45 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:37,360 The idea behind this project is to 46 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:41,080 use these properties of the measles vaccine 47 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,240 and transfer these properties to 48 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:48,680 an HIV vaccine. The way this is done is to construct 49 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:54,640 what we call a recombinant measles virus, which carries bits and pieces of HIV. 50 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:58,880 Using the modern techniques of genetic engineering, 51 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:04,240 parts of the HIV virus are extracted and inserted into the measles or rubeola virus. 52 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,320 This changes its genetic code as well as its hull structure 53 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:14,480 so that it can be recognized by the immune system. 54 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:18,520 The so-called recombinant measles virus could be used as a vector 55 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,600 to create a vaccine against both diseases, rubeola as well as against the 56 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:24,560 human immunodeficiency virus 57 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,760 that leads to AIDS. Gerald Vos and his team 58 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,760 hope that their approach in the EU-funded project will lead to an easy to use 59 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,760 and eventually relatively cheap vaccine for worldwide distribution. 60 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:43,760 This vaccine or vaccination 61 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:49,600 if successful 62 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:53,280 will create a strong immune response against the HIV 63 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,480 parts of the genetic construct, 64 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,760 meaning that it will 65 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:04,080 create specific immune cells that are able to 66 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,080 recognize the real HIV 67 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:10,640 virus if ever encountered. 68 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,000 But the new vaccine will probably only immunize during childhood 69 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:19,480 and might not help in cases like Carmen's. She has been living with HIV for five years 70 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,200 and has now found a partner who is not infected. The couple are thinking about 71 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:24,640 having a child together. 72 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:31,640 It starts in the morning after getting up. 73 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:35,520 When I brush my teeth, do I give my partner a long kiss? 74 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:38,880 Probably not, due to gun bleeding. 75 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,040 The daily routine in the bathroom, taking a shower or bath or eating from the same plate, 76 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:48,040 that's absolutely no problem. 77 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,600 Where you have to pay attention is during sex, 78 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:55,080 blood to blood contact, during pregnancy 79 00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:00,400 and when you're breastfeeding. 80 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:07,880 Having children is not out of reach for HIV-positive women like Carmen 81 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,760 if precautions are taken. 82 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:16,000 At the same time, Dorothea Van Leer and her team at the University of Frankfurt 83 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:20,320 are working hard to help patients like Carmen with a promising new treatment. 84 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:23,840 They have developed an innovative technique against the virus 85 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:27,960 that may not only help to protect against an infection, but could also improve the 86 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,520 treatment of infected persons like Carmen. 87 00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:33,680 Their key technology is the use of so-called 88 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:37,000 aptamers, tiny pieces of genetic code 89 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,320 from the human cell. 90 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,320 Aptamers are a fairly new group of medications. 91 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:48,440 They're based on nucleic acid, the same material that our genes and our genetic 92 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:49,880 information are made from. 93 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:54,840 These nucleic acids have the ability to fold themselves in a very specific way 94 00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:57,160 and to lock onto certain targets. 95 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,720 And in our case, the target structure is on the AIDS virus. 96 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:06,520 Together with teams in France and Britain, 97 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:09,920 her team are searching for those pieces of aptamer particles 98 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,520 that stick best to the surface proteins of the HIV virus 99 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:18,440 in order to block them. But finding the right aptamers among millions of possible 100 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:19,400 combinations 101 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:24,600 is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Aptamers can prevent HIV virus 102 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:26,360 from docking with human cells 103 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,800 without triggering resistance or side effects. Aptamers could either be used as a 104 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:33,000 means of prevention 105 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,720 or as a therapy to block the spread of the HIV virus inside the body. 106 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:40,920 Immune cells are going to be taken from the patient's body and will be changed 107 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:41,720 genetically 108 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:46,320 so that cells will be protected against HIV. Then they're reinserted back into the 109 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:47,440 body of the patient. 110 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,560 There they could be active immunologically and reconstruct the immune system 111 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:54,560 without being attacked by the immune defense.