DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTICOMPONENT CANDIDATE VACCINE FOR HIV-1

Nucleic acid or DNA immunization represents a novel approach to both v accine and immune therapeutic development. DNA vaccination induces ant igen-specific cellular and humoral immune responses through the delive ry of non-replicating transcription units which drive the synthesis of specific foreign proteins within the inoculated host. We have previou sly reported on the potential use of DNA immunization as a novel vacci ne strategy for HIV-1. We found that both antigen-specific cellular an d humoral immune responses could be induced in vivo with various DNA v accine constructs against different antigenic targets within HIV-1. In order to enhance the DNA vaccine's ability to elicit cell-mediated im mune responses, we co-delivered plasmids encoding costimulatory molecu le B7 and interleukin-12 genes with DNA vaccine for HIV-1. We observed a dramatic increase in both antigen-specific T helper cell proliferat ion and CTL response. Eventual development of successful vaccines for HIV-1 would likely involve targeting multiple antigenic components of the virus to direct and empower the immune system to protect the host from viral infection. We present here the utility of multicomponent DN A immunization to elicit specific humoral and cell-mediated immune res ponses against different antigenic targets of HIV-1 as well as the abi lity of this immunization strategy to achieve significant enhancements of antigen-specific cellular immune responses. (C) 1997 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd.