PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Health) - Since 1990, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has increased HIV/AIDS vaccine research funding more than sixfold, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said here Wednesday night.

Kicking off the first international scientific meeting on AIDS vaccine research, Fauci described US government plans to ''ramp up'' resources to speed the pace of HIV/AIDS vaccine discovery. The NIH has set aside a projected $356.6 million for AIDS vaccine research for fiscal year 2002, he said.

Fauci noted that this is the 20th anniversary of the recognition of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. ``The burning issue that's confronting and challenging us right now is prevention,'' he said.

Total NIH funding for AIDS has reached $2.5 billion per year. Of these funds, 40.1% will be channeled into prevention efforts, Fauci said. The percentage increase for AIDS vaccine research of 26.6% in 2000-2001 exceeds percentage increases allocated for all other areas of research.

``If you look at the track record of resources, they are now in what I would call an escalation phase,'' he said. The bulk of NIAID vaccine research funds, 61%, will be dedicated to HIV vaccine development. Nine percent will go to malaria vaccine research, 3% to tuberculosis vaccine research and 27% to other vaccine development. Right now, a ``greatly disproportionate'' amount of research funds in a ``positive sense'' are being put into AIDS vaccine research, Fauci said.

He also addressed the impact of the recent change in administration on AIDS funding. Although there are major difficulties with the so-called ``incredible vanishing budget surplus,'' he noted, the current administration has made an ''extraordinary commitment'' to NIH funding. ``The first budget that we defended last March and April was the largest single percent increase for the NIH in its history, and the same holds true for HIV/AIDS,'' he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson ``is clearly very committed to developing an HIV vaccine,'' Fauci said. Thompson, along with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Secretary of State Colin Powell, represent ``some very important allies.''

Fauci also outlined some of the ongoing NIAID programs launched to augment HIV vaccine basic research. The HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), a global research network, was created recently to oversee all phases of clinical trials of HIV vaccine candidates currently in the research pipeline.

To date, the NIAID has about 24 HIV vaccine candidates, 16 of which are directed against HIV clades, or strains, commonly found in the developing world, including clade A, from Africa, and clade C, found in Asia and Africa. ``There is a clear attention that's being paid to non-B clade viruses that are relevant to developing nations,'' Fauci said.

Fauci also stressed the importance of setting up a ''sustainable infrastructure'' in developing nations. To this end, another NIAID program, the Comprehensive International Program of Clinical Research on AIDS (CIPRA), will focus on research infrastructure and laboratory and clinical studies of affordable and practical prevention and treatment methods.

Long-term support by CIPRA is designed to prepare host countries to conduct their own research and participate in large-scale treatment, prevention and vaccine clinical trials in local populations. The CDC has parallel programs in this area.

The NIAID's Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is also conducting all stages of HIV vaccine research. The first VRC-sponsored phase I study of a DNA vaccine using HIV proteins has already begun.

One of the greatest obstacles to HIV vaccine development is an inadequate understanding of immunity, Fauci continued. It will therefore be ``essential'' to better understand the role of antibodies and white blood cells known as cytotoxic T lymphocytes in the development of HIV disease.

Other obstacles to HIV vaccine development are the high rate of HIV mutation, limitations of current animal models of disease and the integration of HIV into the DNA of host cells where it escapes detection by the immune system, he added.

In closing, Fauci said he was confident efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine would ultimately succeed. ``The challenge is great,'' he said, ``but the stakes are extremely high.''

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