Therapeutic Vaccination of HIV-Infected Patients 2.0

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2021) | Viewed by 10225

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: emerging infectious diseases (SARS-CoV-2, HIV-1, fungi, bacteria); dendritic cells; adaptive immunity
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Co-Guest Editor
Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Interests: 3D cell culture and pathogen interactions (fungi, HIV-1, SARS-CoV-2); lung model; mucosa; T zell zone model; innate immunity; dendritic cells; T cell polarization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 2019, 38 million people worldwide were living with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), 1.7 million new infections were reported, and almost 1 million patients died of AIDS. Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) can dramatically extend the lives of HIV-1-infected individuals and, according to the UNAIDS 2019 fact sheet, 25.4 million HIV-1-infected individuals are currently receiving ART therapy. A fast track strategy to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 was postulated by the organization UNAIDS. To reach this visionary aim, rapid progress has to be made in the development of HIV prevention strategies and improved treatment options. If progress is too slow, as it looks like right now, the UNAIDS-commissioned modelling predicts a rebound pandemic by 2030, with an even more serious threat to future health. The increasing trend of resistance to widely used antiretroviral drugs in HIV-1-infected patients urges the development of safe and efficient vaccines, as well as anti-retroviral therapies, that are affordable and easy to administer. Despite the efforts of numerous research teams all around the world, no effective HIV-1 vaccine is available to date. The extremely high genetic variability of the virus and its ability to suppress protective immune responses hinder the development of a vaccine based on conventional methodologies. Another obstacle is the lack of adequate laboratory models to test potential vaccines on human tissue in a high-throughput manner.

In line with these considerations, we would like to encourage the submission of works on the recent advances in the development of novel therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of HIV to this Special Issue. Studies using vaccine immunotherapy, adoptive cell transfer, CAR-T cells, HIV-associated and HIV-specific antigen stimulation of immune/antigen-presenting cells, and the use of nucleic acid transfer are welcome. Adding new information about these subjects may improve the design and the efficiency of new therapeutic vaccination strategies of HIV.

Dr. Wilfried Posch
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • therapeutic vaccines
  • immunotherapy
  • cell-based vaccination
  • adoptive cells transfer
  • CAR-T cells
  • HIV-1
  • AIDS

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2160 KiB  
Article
P80 Natural Essence Exerts Efficient Anti-HIV-1- as Well as Adjuvant Effects in DCs
by Viktoria Zaderer, Wilfried Posch, Ronald Gstir, Przemyslaw A. Filipek, Günther K. Bonn, Pornanong Aramwit, Lukas A. Huber and Doris Wilflingseder
Vaccines 2021, 9(9), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9090976 - 31 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2485
Abstract
Dendritic cells (DCs), as well as complement, play a major role during human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) entry and infection at mucosal sites. Together, DCs and complement are key points for understanding host defence against HIV-1 infection and for studying the impact of [...] Read more.
Dendritic cells (DCs), as well as complement, play a major role during human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) entry and infection at mucosal sites. Together, DCs and complement are key points for understanding host defence against HIV-1 infection and for studying the impact of new drugs on the regulation of innate host-pathogen interactions and adaptive immunity. For this, we evaluated the antiviral effect of the P80 natural essence (Longan extract) on interactions of non- and complement-opsonized HIV-1 with DCs. In viability assays, we first illustrated the effects of P80 natural essence on DC function. We found that P80 concentrations above 1.5% caused increased cell death, while at concentrations between 0.5% and 1% the compound exerted efficient antiviral effects in DCs and illustrated an adjuvant effect regarding DC activation. DC maturation, as well as co-stimulatory capacity, were significantly improved by P80 natural essence via p38 MAPK phosphorylation in presence of the viral challenge independent of the opsonization pattern. These findings might be exploited for future therapeutic options to target DC subsets directly at mucosal sites by P80 natural essence and to block entry of both, non- and complement-opsonized HIV-1. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Therapeutic Vaccination of HIV-Infected Patients 2.0)
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11 pages, 1616 KiB  
Article
Association of Transcriptomic Signatures of Inflammatory Response with Viral Control after Dendritic Cell-Based Therapeutic Vaccination in HIV-1 Infected Individuals
by Csaba Fehér, Roque Pastor-lbáñez, Lorna Leal, Montserrat Plana, Mireia Arnedo, Henk-Jan van den Ham, Arno C. Andeweg, Rob A. Gruters, Francisco Díez-Fuertes, José Alcamí, Patrick Aloy and Felipe García
Vaccines 2021, 9(7), 799; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9070799 - 19 Jul 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3481
Abstract
Systems vaccinology has seldomly been used in therapeutic HIV-1 vaccine research. Our aim was to identify early gene ‘signatures’ that predicted virus load control after analytical therapy interruption (ATI) in participants of a dendritic cell-based HIV-1 vaccine trial (DCV2). mRNA and miRNA were [...] Read more.
Systems vaccinology has seldomly been used in therapeutic HIV-1 vaccine research. Our aim was to identify early gene ‘signatures’ that predicted virus load control after analytical therapy interruption (ATI) in participants of a dendritic cell-based HIV-1 vaccine trial (DCV2). mRNA and miRNA were extracted from frozen post-vaccination PBMC samples; gene expression was determined by microarray method. In gene set enrichment analysis, responders showed an up-regulation of 14 gene sets (TNF-alpha/NFkB pathway, inflammatory response, the complement system, Il6 and Il2 JAK-STAT signaling, among others) and a down-regulation of 7 gene sets (such as E2F targets or interferon alpha response). The expression of genes regulated by three (miR-223-3p, miR-1183 and miR-8063) of the 9 differentially expressed miRNAs was significantly down-regulated in responders. The deregulation of certain gene sets related to inflammatory processes seems fundamental for viral control, and certain miRNAs may be important in fine-tuning these processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Therapeutic Vaccination of HIV-Infected Patients 2.0)
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15 pages, 2898 KiB  
Article
Impact of Transcriptome and Gut Microbiome on the Response of HIV-1 Infected Individuals to a Dendritic Cell-Based HIV Therapeutic Vaccine
by Roque Pastor-Ibáñez, Francisco Díez-Fuertes, Sonsoles Sánchez-Palomino, Jose Alcamí, Montserrat Plana, David Torrents, Lorna Leal and Felipe García
Vaccines 2021, 9(7), 694; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9070694 - 24 Jun 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3549
Abstract
Therapeutic vaccines based on dendritic cells offer a good approach to HIV-specific T-cell responses and partial control of the viral load after antiretroviral therapy interruption. The aim of the present study was to identify mRNA expression profiles and to assess the impact of [...] Read more.
Therapeutic vaccines based on dendritic cells offer a good approach to HIV-specific T-cell responses and partial control of the viral load after antiretroviral therapy interruption. The aim of the present study was to identify mRNA expression profiles and to assess the impact of the gut microbiome composition for predicting the viral load control after antiretroviral therapy interruption. We enrolled 29 patients to receive either placebo or a monocyte-derived dendritic cell vaccine. Patients with a decrease in their viral load of >0.5 log10 copies/mL by 12 weeks after antiretroviral therapy interruption were considered responders. In total, 66 genes were considered differentially expressed between responders and non-responders. Enrichment analysis revealed several upregulated pathways involved in the host defense response to a virus via the type I interferon signaling pathway. Regarding the gut microbiota, responders showed enriched levels of Bacteroidetes (p < 0.005) and Verrucomicrobia (p = 0.017), while non-responders were enriched with Tenericutes (p = 0.049) and Actinobacteria (p < 0.005). We also found important differences at the genus level. However, we did not discover any effect of the dendritic cell vaccine on the transcriptome or the gut microbiota. An alternative analysis did characterize that the microbiota from responders were associated with the metabolic production of short-chain fatty acids, which are key metabolites in the regulation of intestinal homeostasis. The evidence now consistently shows that short-chain fatty acid depletion occurs in HIV-infected individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Therapeutic Vaccination of HIV-Infected Patients 2.0)
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