With more than 30 million HIV-infected individuals, there can be few other more pressing biomedical priorities than to produce an effective vaccine for HIV. Given the important role that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and helper T lymphocytes (HTLs) play in controlling viral replication, it is critical that this vaccine stimulates these cellular responses. Current methods of detecting vaccine-induced immune responses include Intra-Cellular Cytokine Staining (ICS), Enzyme-Linked Spot-Forming Assays (ELISPOT), and tetramer staining. ICS and ELISPOT can be carried out using peptides of 10-15 amino acids in length. However, depending on where the true epitope lies in the synthetic peptide, these peptide sets may not accurately detect the magnitude of the immune response. The identification of minimal optimal epitopes is the best method to accurately assess cellular immune responses. Furthermore, the synthesis of tetramers is absolutely dependent on knowledge of the minimal optimal epitope. Finally, we recently discovered that there are several MHC class l-restricted epitopes in SIV cryptic Open Reading Frames (cORFs). We, therefore, propose to continue our definition of minimal optimal epitopes for common Indian rhesus macaque class I and II molecules in both classical and cryptic ORFs in SIV.

Public Health Relevance

(provided by applicant): SIV infection in Indian rhesus macaques is the best animal model for studying HIV-infected humans. SIV challenge of vaccinated Indian rhesus macaques is one of the best defined models available for pre-clinical development of HIV vaccines. Identification of MHC alleles and definition of SIV-specific epitopes is critical in the definition of the immune response in this biomedically important system.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
2R24RR015371-11
Application #
7842965
Study Section
National Center for Research Resources Initial Review Group (RIRG)
Program Officer
Watson, Harold L
Project Start
2000-07-01
Project End
2014-06-30
Budget Start
2010-08-25
Budget End
2011-06-30
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$1,125,888
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715
Reynolds, Matthew R; Weiler, Andrea M; Piaskowski, Shari M et al. (2012) A trivalent recombinant Ad5 gag/pol/nef vaccine fails to protect rhesus macaques from infection or control virus replication after a limiting-dose heterologous SIV challenge. Vaccine 30:4465-75
Sette, Alessandro; Sidney, John; Southwood, Scott et al. (2012) A shared MHC supertype motif emerges by convergent evolution in macaques and mice, but is totally absent in human MHC molecules. Immunogenetics 64:421-34
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Reynolds, Matthew R; Sacha, Jonah B; Weiler, Andrea M et al. (2011) The TRIM5{alpha} genotype of rhesus macaques affects acquisition of simian immunodeficiency virus SIVsmE660 infection after repeated limiting-dose intrarectal challenge. J Virol 85:9637-40
Mudd, Philip A; Watkins, David I (2011) Understanding animal models of elite control: windows on effective immune responses against immunodeficiency viruses. Curr Opin HIV AIDS 6:197-201
Mudd, Philip A; Ericsen, Adam J; Walsh, Andrew D et al. (2011) CD8+ T cell escape mutations in simian immunodeficiency virus SIVmac239 cause fitness defects in vivo, and many revert after transmission. J Virol 85:12804-10

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