AIDSWEEKLY Plus, Monday, 19 May 1997
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor
A nef-deleted simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) vaccine protected monkeys against disease after challenge with a different strain of pathogenic virus.
Mark Lewis and colleagues of the H.M. Jackson Foundation, Rockville, Maryland, evaluated nef deletion in two SIV strains (SIVmac239-delta-nef and SIVsmPBj6.6-delta-nef) that cause AIDS in macaque monkeys.
Eighty weeks after inoculation with the vaccines, the animals were challenged with one of two virulent SIV strains (SIVmac239, SIVsmE660) or with the pathogenic simian-human SHIV strain SHIV[89.6PD] (five animals plus two unvaccinated controls per challenge virus).
Some of the vaccinated animals did not become infected with the pathogenic challenge virus, Lewis reported at the 9th Annual Meeting of the National Cooperative Vaccine Development Groups for AIDS (NCVDG), held May 4-7, 1997, in Bethesda, Maryland. But even when they did become infected, the vaccinated animals showed no signs of disease.
The researchers inoculated 15 monkeys with each of the vaccine strains.
"Seven of the 15 SIVmac239-delta-nef immunized animals and 13 of the 15 SIVsmPBj6.6-delta-nef immunized animals yielded virus for up to 20 weeks and then became culture negative," Lewis reported. "The remaining animals were culture positive at most or all time points."
Among the monkeys vaccinated with SIVmac239-delta-nef:
* Three of five animals were protected against challenge infection with SIVmac239.
* All animals challenged with SIVsmE660 and SHIV[89.6PD] became persistently infected, but without acute pathogenic events.
* In the vaccinated animals that became infected with challenge virus, viral loads were 1-4 log[10] lower than those seen in control animals.
The monkeys vaccinated with SIVsmPBj6.6-delta-nef were challenged with SIVmac239 or SHIV[89.6PD]. Results showed that:
* Three of five animals were completely protected against challenge infection with SIVmac239, and the virus could be isolated from the remaining two animals only at early time points after challenge.
* Two of five animals were completely protected against SHIV[89.6PD] challenge infection, and the virus could only intermittently be isolated from the remaining three animals.
* In the vaccinated animals that became infected with challenge virus, viral loads were 3-4 log[10] lower than those seen in control animals.
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