MUVADEN: Mucosal Vaccines Against Human and Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses Based on Dendritic Cells

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 02.0404

Key words (English)

Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Safety; Scientific Research; Social Aspects

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLK2-CT-2002-00882

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.2 Control of infectious diseases

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Institute for Research in Biomedicine

Abstract (English)

There is urgent need for HIV vaccines with high protective efficacy, low cost and simple immunisation schedule. Aim of this project is to assess in the macaque model the efficacy of
(i) new vaccine candidates (lipid-DNA; single cycle lentiviral vector; recombinant S.gordonii) made by our consortium;
(ii) prime-boost vaccination strategies with/without adjuvants (GM-CSF, TNF-alpha, C pG motifs) and
(iii) route of vaccine application (via the tonsils vs. parenteral) for inducing immunity and protect ion to mucosal challenge.

We also address to vaccine biology at dendritic cell level. With the oral route we target dendritic cells that are numerous at this site and mature them with adjuvants. Thus, we expect to see an enhanced immunity, a low viral set point (undetectable virus by infectious unit and RNA assays) or at least a reduction of viral load (100 RNA copies/ml of plasma), clinical well being and normal CD4 counts and function.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 02.0404