New Delhi: India is developing an AIDS vaccine, a prototype of which is ready for pre-clinical studies, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on July 25.

"A prototype of the candidate vaccine for AIDS is under development under the National Jai Vigyan Science & Technology Mission of the Department of Biotechnology. The vaccine is based on plasmid DNA and MVA approaches. The vaccine candidate is ready for pre-clinical toxicological studies," Minister of State for Science Bachi Singh Rawat said in a written reply to a question.

In another collaborative effort by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Ministry of Health and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, USA, a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) based HIV-I subtype 'C' vaccine is being developed. The prototype of this vaccine is now undergoing pre-clinical toxicological studies, he said.

The prototype HIV-I vaccine candidate consisting of six components developed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, has the potential as preventive vaccine.

The results so far have indicated that the vaccine candidate induces a robust and broad-based immune response against HIV-I in immunized experimental animals.

Rawat said in the Modified Vaccinia Ankara based subtype 'C' vaccine six consensus genes have been inserted into a MVA, which would act as a vehicle for the vaccine. The identification of consensus sequence and further cloning of the genes into a MVA vector have been completed.

The prototype vaccine is undergoing pre-clinical toxicity studies, he added.

PTI