Modified Canarypox Vector Shows Promise.(Brief Article)

2001 MAR 21 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

by Michael Greer, staff medical writer -- A novel HIV vaccine has shown encouraging results in early studies, researchers in Washington state report.

L. Corey and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle evaluated the efficacy of a vaccine made up of a recombinant gp120 protein delivered via a canarypox vector containing the HIV proteins Gag, Env, and Pro.

They found that their vaccine elicited both memory T-cell and HIV specific antibody responses in a majority of the volunteers. More than six out of 10 (62%) of the study participants showed CD8(+) T-cell responses, study data showed, while over 90% developed HIV neutralizing antibodies.

By contrast, only a marginal proportion of subjects administered a gp120 vaccine alone demonstrated such responses ("Cellular and humoral immune responses to a canarypox vaccine containing human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Env, Gag, and Pro in combination with RGP120," Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2001;183(4):563-570).

T-cell responses were similar between subjects with and without previous vaccine exposure, Corey et al. noted. A large ...