Making the Case for the Live Attenuated Approach: An Interview With Ronald Desrosiers

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Making the Case for the Live Attenuated Approach: An Interview With Ronald Desrosiers

IAVI Report (10/97-12/97) Vol. 2, No. 3, P. 6

Abstract: In an interview with the IAVI Report, Harvard's Ronald Desrosiers endorses the use of a live attenuated HIV vaccine in a human trial because, he believes, such a vaccine may be effective, relatively safe, and inexpensive to produce. However, he does add that the initial trials should be small in size and that the virus used should be more attenuated than necessary, possibly a strain missing nef, vpr, vpu, and the binding site for the transcription factor NF[kappa]B. And though Desrosiers recognizes concerns about the safety of such a vaccine in human trials, he says the most relevant safety data comes from those people infected with nef-deleted forms of HIV and who have had low viral loads and stable CD4 counts for more than 13 years. Moreover, no attenuated vaccine can be expected to be 100 percent safe; people must simply accept the risk because of the overall benefits. Yet given existing opposition and production issues, Desrosiers does not believe there will be a human trial within the next two years. He says that his lab is also looking at other HIV vaccine research, including the role of carbohydrates on the virus envelope and the use of a herpes virus vector to generate long-term immune responses. In terms of the future, Desrosiers says that many vaccine approaches should be pursued, although he believes that the live attenuated vaccine would make the greatest difference.

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