POXVIRUS-BASED VACCINE CANDIDATES FOR CANCER, AIDS, AND OTHER INFECTIOUS-DISEASES

Over the past 12 years, the poxvirus vector technology has provided sc ientists with valuable reagents to achieve high-level expression of pr oteins, to address questions of structure-function relationship of spe cific polypeptides, to investigate the immunobiology of specific patho gens, and to develop recombinant vaccine candidates, It is this last r ole that has drawn enthusiasm from the medical community because of th e potential this technology has to provide novel approaches for addres sing urgent needs in human and veterinary medicine, From one perspecti ve, the safety issues surrounding the use of vaccinia-based vaccine ca ndidates have been addressed with the development of the NYVAC and ALV AC vectors. Evaluation of these novel poxvirus vectors are in progress to determine their potential impact on cancer and infectious disease.