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P17-05. Dealing with HIV-1 diversity
Retrovirology volume 6, Article number: P287 (2009)
Background
One of the big roadblocks in development of HIV-1/AIDS vaccines is the enormous diversity of HIV-1, which could limit the value of any HIV-1 vaccine candidate currently under test.
Methods
To address the HIV-1 variation, we designed a novel T cell immunogen, designated HIVconsv, by assembling the 14 most conserved regions of the HIV-1 proteome into one chimaeric protein. Each segment is a consensus sequence from one of the four major HIV-1 clades A, B, C and D, which alternate to ensure equal clade coverage. The gene coding for the HIVconsv protein was inserted into a number of vaccine vectors, which were used in a multiple heterologous prime-boost combination.
Results
Complex vaccination regimen induced strong, broad, polyfunctional HIV-1-specific CD8 and CD4 T cell responses non-human primates.
Conclusion
This vaccine approach provides an attractive and testable alternative for overcoming the HIV-1 variability, while focusing T cell responses on regions of the virus that are less likely to mutate and escape. Furthermore, this immunogen has merit in its simplicity. The potential of complex heterologous regimen will be discussed. Phase I clinical trials in healthy and HIV-1-infected individuals testing HIVconsv vaccines have been funded and are under preparation.
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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Rosario, M., Borthwick, N., Bridgeman, A. et al. P17-05. Dealing with HIV-1 diversity. Retrovirology 6 (Suppl 3), P287 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-6-S3-P287
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-6-S3-P287
Keywords
- Cell Response
- Consensus Sequence
- Vaccine Candidate
- Testable Alternative
- Enormous Diversity