The human immunodeficiency virus was discovered more than 25 years ago and since then a cure for AIDS has eluded researchers. A viable vaccine that can prevent the spread of that disease has also eluded medical science despite huge amounts of research funding and work. The insidious nature of the HIV virus causes the problem. The virus destroys functions of the immune system that have evolved to protect the body from viral pathogens. The immune system is so weakened that viral antigens in vaccines don't evoke a strong enough immune response to stop the virus particles from infecting lymphocytes. Dozens of vaccines have been tried and none work.

Gene therapies have also been tested- most of them in animals and a few in humans. They can stop up to 99% of the viral load but they cannot cure AIDS or prevent it. The curent gene therapies dont prevent transmission  of the virus either. Gene therapies are not vaccines- they are therapies based on the use of vectors that carry DNA into a person's cells and that cause the DNA to be incorporated into the genetic machinery in the nucleus of lymphocytes to transform them. The DNA endows them with extra genes that kill the HIV virus or that prevent the infection of lymphocytes and other immune system cells by blocking their entry via the CCR5 receptors. CCR5 is the chemokine receptor which HIV uses as a coreceptor to gain entry into lymphocytes and macrophages.

None of those genetic therapies has resulted in a cure of the disease. Vulvox is working on a new kind of genetic therapy that has the potential of curing AIDS. We do not claim to have a cure now, but we have reason to think that our new type of genetic therapy will be able to cure that disease instead of keeping the patients dependent on a number of protease inhibitors and AZT that causes lots of side effects. Vulvox is seeking joint research and development partnerships and both public and private funding to test our theories and to perfect our genetic therapy in animals and humans.