Current HIV Research - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2010

The “mini hot topic” issue on Novel Vaccines and Adjuvants aims to present the most updated information on newly developed concepts in vaccines and adjuvants targeted to cancers as well as infectious diseases. Safety problems related to traditional attenuated or inactivated vaccines, together with broadening the vaccine concept to human diseases other than infectious (i.e. cancer), have considerably fuelled the vaccinology fie Read More

Genetic immunization with lentiviral vectors is under evaluation as a means for induction of sustained immune response. Lentiviral vectors showed reduced antivector immune responses and efficiently transduced post-mitotic cells in vivo, including antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells and macrophages, thus providing a significant benefit over other vector-based antigen delivery platforms. Several evidences indicate th Read More

HIV-1 has resulted in a devastating AIDS pandemic. An effective HIV/AIDS vaccine that can be used to either, prevent HIV infection, control infection or prevent progression of the disease to AIDS is needed. In this review we discuss the use of Mycobacterium bovis BCG, the tuberculosis vaccine, as a vaccine vector for an HIV vaccine. Numerous features make BCG an attractive vehicle to deliver HIV antigens. It has a good safety pro Read More

Particulate structures hold great promise for the development of effective and affordable recombinant prophylactic as well as therapeutic vaccines. Different types of particulate structures, including virus-like particles (VLPs) and virosomes, have been developed depending on the nature of the viral pathogen to be targeted and the type of immune response (humoral vs cellular) to be elicited. Particulate structures allow the inser Read More

HIV remains one of the most important deadly infections today, due to the lack of a preventive vaccine and limited access to medical care in developing countries. In developed countries, antiretroviral therapy is available, but it can not eliminate the virus, implying that life-long therapy is necessary. Therefore, it is important that other strategies such as therapeutic vaccination will be developed to control virus replication o Read More

Efficient vaccines combined with adjuvants potentiate and enhance antibody avidity and increase T cell longevity, particularly in individuals with compromised immunity. The efficacy of a novel vaccine can be improved by specifically targeting its immunogenic subunits and expressing it in live probiotic vector (i.e. Lactobacillus acidophilus) that protects vaccine bioavailability and to induces not only mucosal but also systemic im Read More

The vast majority of pathogens invade the body through or establish infections in the mucosal tissues. Development of vaccines to combat mucosal infections represents a top priority. Mucosal immunization has recently attracted much interest as a means of generating protective immunity against mucosal pathogens. Conversely, only very few mucosal vaccines are presently approved for human use. The development of a Read More

HIV-1 infection is associated with hematologic abnormalities including defective myelopoiesis. Most studies of myelopoiesis during HIV-1 infection were performed using unfractionated bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells, thus resulting in significant inter-individual variability in the numbers of cultured precursors. Here we evaluated the myelopoietic potential of circulating CD34+ progenitors by conducting a longitudinal anal Read More

Recently, a mechanism of negative regulation of immune responses by a specialized population of so-called regulatory T cells (Tregs) has become a focus of intense investigation. Through the discovery of transcription factor Foxp3 as a central molecular determinant of Tregs differentiation and function, the complex biology of these cells, including maintenance of immunological tolerance to “self” and regulation of immune resp Read More

Objectives: The primary objective was to assess HIV-1 susceptibility to the protease inhibitor (PI) tipranavir and other antiretroviral (ARV) agents among treatment-experienced patients (TEP). Secondarily, clinicians' use of resistance testing was examined. Methods: UTILIZE was an observational study conducted at 40 sites in the United States. Patients currently failing a PI-based regimen were randomized to receive Read More