A novel HIV vaccine candidate developed by MHRP scientists in collaboration with Advanced BioScience laboratories will be produced for potential use in clinical studies.
Following a recent investment from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a novel HIV vaccine candidate developed by MHRP scientists in collaboration with Advanced BioScience laboratories will be produced for potential use in clinical studies.
The move to further test the new protein boost vaccine candidate—a subtype C gp145 Env subunit vaccine—came about after renewed interest in this type of vaccine following the success of the MHRP-led RV144 HIV vaccine trial in Thailand. RV144 showed V2 antibodies (a type of antibody also elicited by gp145), correlated with a lower risk of HIV infection. In the RV144 trial, a subunit protein boost was similarly used to effectively generate antibodies.
The research team, led by Dr. Vicky Polonis, based the gp145 subunit vaccine on HIV subtype C, which represents more than 50% of global HIV infections. In addition to its prevalence, several studies have shown unique properties of C envelopes, or the outer coat of the virus, including rapid and potent antibody elicitation. These properties make the subtype C gp145 an attractive vaccine candidate.