PROGRESS IN VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AGAINST AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

PROGRESS IN VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AGAINST AIDS

AIDS Updates; 2(4):1-10 1989. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/90659640
Fischinger PJ; Medical Univ. of South Carolina, Charleston, SC

Abstract: The need for an effective vaccine against AIDS is of global importance, especially where HIV is not confined to select populations practicing high-risk behavior and can be construed as yet another sexually transmitted disease. A particularly difficult element in HIV control is the fact that during early phases of infection, the person is essentially asymptomatic yet can transmit the virus. Since most of the infected individuals do not know they have been infected and are potential carriers, virus will continue to spread in the absence of an effective vaccine. HIV infection and eventual disease present a number of unique difficulties to vaccine development: (1) HIV is a retrovirus; many strains exist and the virus mutates rapidly. (2) HIV has many target cells; it can be dormant as well as not lethal. (3) Transmission can occur via HIV-infected cells. (4) HIV attacks the controlling elements of the immune system. (5) Protective immunity in man may not exist naturally. (6) There is no current perfect animal model to test HIV vaccines. This review focuses on recent progress in AIDS vaccine development, covering the following topics: vaccine preparations (current candidates, nonviral vaccines--alternative antigens), molecular dissection of HIV envelope epitopes (functional sites on the major envelope glycoprotein [gp120] eliciting B-cell responses, T-cell epitopes in recall and cytolytic responses, potentially undesirable responses to HIV antigens), outcomes in animal models (challenge experiments in chimpanzees, newer animal models), and human clinical trials (vaccine preparation in humans, prospects for large-scale use of anti-HIV vaccines). (76 Refs)

Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/IMMUNOLOGY/*PREVENTION & CONTROL Animal Human HIV/*IMMUNOLOGY HIV Antibodies/*BIOSYNTHESIS HIV Antigens/IMMUNOLOGY Vaccines, Synthetic/ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE/IMMUNOLOGY Viral Vaccines/*ADMINISTRATION & DOSAGE/IMMUNOLOGY JOURNAL ARTICLE
900430
M9040667

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