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Vaccines
Special Issues
Research on HIV/AIDS Vaccine
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Research on HIV/AIDS Vaccine

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X). This special issue belongs to the section "HIV Vaccines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 1135

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Portia Chipo Mutevedzi

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS), Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Interests: child mortality; HIV/AIDS; COVID-19; vaccines; malnutrition; neonatal sepsis; anti-microbial resistance (AMR); nosocomial infections
Dr. Nagesh Kolishetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Immunology and Nano-Medicine, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Interests: immunology; nano-medicine; HIV/AIDS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

HIV is a deadly infectious disease, with 39 million people living with it and 1.3 million new infections in 2022. Despite a significant decline in AIDS-related deaths, 630,000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2022. The development of an HIV vaccine remains a global health priority to end the pandemic. Although numerous pre-clinical and clinical trials have provided insights into HIV vaccine development, the development of an HIV vaccine remains a significant challenge. The development and accessibility of highly active antiretroviral treatment (ART) represent a significant step, but suboptimal adherence and drug resistance remain major challenges. Millions of people living with HIV still lack access to ART. Although ART is essential in preventing HIV transmission, alone it cannot end the pandemic. Therefore, developing an HIV vaccine is a global health priority and the only way to put an end to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. This Special Issue highlights recent scientific and technical advancements made in this field, including correlates of protection, immune pathways, mechanisms for addressing ART unmet needs, and recent advances in novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. We invite contributions including original reports, original observations, or reviews to highlight (i) correlates of protection, (ii) immune pathways after primary infection, (iii) mechanisms for addressing ART unmet needs such as persistent viral replication in compartments and reservoirs insensitive to ART, chronic immune activation, and the incomplete restoration of B and T cells, and (iv) recent advances in novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.

Dr. Portia Chipo Mutevedzi
Dr. Nagesh Kolishetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • HIV
  • antiretroviral treatment (ART)
  • vaccines
  • drug resistance
  • vaccine efficacy

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 7028 KiB  
Article
Patterns of Diversity and Humoral Immunogenicity for HIV-1 Antisense Protein (ASP)
by Diogo Gama Caetano, Paloma Napoleão-Pêgo, Larissa Melo Villela, Fernanda Heloise Côrtes, Sandra Wagner Cardoso, Brenda Hoagland, Beatriz Grinsztejn, Valdilea Gonçalves Veloso, Salvatore Giovanni De-Simone and Monick Lindenmeyer Guimarães
Vaccines 2024, 12(7), 771; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines12070771 - 13 Jul 2024
Viewed by 946
Abstract
HIV-1 has an antisense gene overlapping env that encodes the ASP protein. ASP functions are still unknown, but it has been associated with gp120 in the viral envelope and membrane of infected cells, making it a potential target for immune response. Despite this, [...] Read more.
HIV-1 has an antisense gene overlapping env that encodes the ASP protein. ASP functions are still unknown, but it has been associated with gp120 in the viral envelope and membrane of infected cells, making it a potential target for immune response. Despite this, immune response patterns against ASP are poorly described and can be influenced by the high genetic variability of the env gene. To explore this, we analyzed 100k HIV-1 ASP sequences from the Los Alamos HIV sequence database using phylogenetic, Shannon entropy (Hs), and logo tools to study ASP variability in worldwide and Brazilian sequences from the most prevalent HIV-1 subtypes in Brazil (B, C, and F1). Data obtained in silico guided the design and synthesis of 15-mer overlapping peptides through spot synthesis on cellulose membranes. Peptide arrays were screened to assess IgG and IgM responses in pooled plasma samples from HIV controllers and individuals with acute or recent HIV infection. Excluding regions with low alignment accuracy, several sites with higher variability (Hs > 1.5) were identified among the datasets (25 for worldwide sequences, 20 for Brazilian sequences). Among sites with Hs < 1.5, sequence logos allowed the identification of 23 other sites with subtype-specific signatures. Altogether, amino acid variations with frequencies > 20% in the 48 variable sites identified were included in 92 peptides, divided into 15 sets, representing near full-length ASP. During the immune screening, the strongest responses were observed in three sets, one in the middle and one at the C-terminus of the protein. While some sets presented variations potentially associated with epitope displacement between IgG and IgM targets and subtype-specific signatures appeared to impact the level of response for some peptides, signals of cross-reactivity were observed for some sets despite the presence of B/C/F1 signatures. Our data provides a map of ASP regions preferentially targeted by IgG and IgM responses. Despite B/C/F1 subtype signatures in ASP, the amino acid variation in some areas preferentially targeted by IgM and IgG did not negatively impact the response against regions with higher immunogenicity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on HIV/AIDS Vaccine)
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