HIV This Week

Buffa V, Negri DR, Leone P, et al. A single administration of lentiviral vectors expressing either full-length human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) HXB2 Rev/Env or codon-optimized HIV-1JR-FL gp120 generates durable immune responses in mice. J Gen Virol 2006;87:1625-34.

Buffa et al evaluated a self-inactivating lentiviral vector for the delivery of HIV-1 envelope sequences in mice in order to elicit specific immune responses. BALB/c mice were immunized with a single injection of self-inactivating lentiviral vectors carrying either the full-length HIV-1(HXB2) Rev/Env (TY2-IIIBEnv) or the codon-optimized HIV-1(JR-FL) gp120 (TY2-JREnv) coding sequence. Both vectors were able to elicit specific cellular responses efficiently, as measured by gamma interferon ELISPOT and chromium-release assays, upon in vitro stimulation of splenocytes from BALB/c immunized mice. However, only the TY2-JREnv-immunized mice were able to elicit specific humoral responses, measured as anti-gp120 antibody production. These data provide the first evidence that a single, direct, in vivo administration of a lentiviral vector encoding a viral gene might represent a useful strategy for vaccine development.