EUROVAC: European vaccine effort against HIV/AIDS (cluster proposal, 5-2)

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0471-7

Key words (English)

CD8 T cells; immune response; HIV; laboratory assays;
Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Safety; Scientific Research; Social Aspects

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLK2-CT-1999-01321

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:
Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois CHUV
Division d'immunologie et d'allergie
Laboratoire d'immunopathologie du SIDA

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: CNRS, Lyon (F)

Abstract (English)

Our preliminary studies performed in HIV-infected subjects with chronic infection have proposed a novel differentiation pattern for memory CD8 T lymphocytes. Different populations of virus-specific memory CD8 T cells at different stages of differentiation and with different functional capacities have been identified based on the expression of the chemokine receptor CCR7 and the surface CD45RA molecule. The different composition of the pool of memory CD8 T cells specific for HIV and CMV appears to be associated with a different ability to control these infections. It is likely that to confer partial and/or complete protection from HIV, the ideal immune response generated by a putative vaccine has to be able to rapidly respond to HIV infection and to be long lasting. These two features of the immune response are going to be strictly dependent upon the type of memory CD4 and CD8 T cell immune responses that have been generated by the putative vaccine.

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: 99.0471-7