Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) causes genital herpes and increases the risk of transmission and infection with HIV. Thus a vaccine for HSV-2 would not only reduce the rate of genital herpes, but also might reduce spread of HIV. Several HSV-2 vaccines have been tested in humans for prevention or reduction of genital herpes disease. A vaccine containing a single viral protein (HSV-2 glycoprotein D) recently showed no evidence for protection against genital herpes in a large international, phase three, randomized controlled trial in HSV-2 seronegative women. We postulate that the limited efficacy of the HSV-2 glycoprotein D vaccine is likely due to inadequate induction of broadly neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses. Last year we reported that we constructed an HSV-2 mutant with changes in the HSV-2 glycoprotein D (gD) that impair the ability of gD to interact with one of its receptors, nectin-1, but not with another receptor, HVEM. This mutant virus was able to infect cells expressing HVEM (epithelial cells), but not cells only expressing netin-1 (neuroblastoma cells). The mutant did not productively infect dorsal root ganglia in the nervous system of mice. The inability of the HSV mutant to productively infect neuronal cells in culture or ganglia in mice after intramuscular inoculation suggests that the HSV-2 mutant might be an attractive candidate as a live attenuated HSV-2 vaccine. This year we initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to test the safety and immunogenicity of a different vaccine, a replication-defective HSV-2 vaccine, in humans. This vaccine was developed by Dr. David Knipe at Harvard, and our lab performed much of the preclinical work in mice and guinea pigs. We also tested the ability of interleukin-1 (IL-1) to serve as an adjuvant to enhance the effectiveness of an HSV-2 gD vaccine. We found that mice receiving HSV-2 gD with IL-1 combined with alum and monophosphoryl lipid A(MPL) adjuvant had improved survival after challenge with HSV-2 compared with animals receiving gD with alum and MPL.

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26
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2014
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Cohen, Jeffrey I (2018) Herpesviruses in the Activated Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase-? Syndrome. Front Immunol 9:237
Wang, Kening; Tomaras, Georgia D; Jegaskanda, Sinthujan et al. (2017) Monoclonal Antibodies, Derived from Humans Vaccinated with the RV144 HIV Vaccine Containing the HVEM Binding Domain of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Glycoprotein D, Neutralize HSV Infection, Mediate Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity, and Protect Mice J Virol 91:
Cohen, Jeffrey I (2017) Vaccination to Reduce Reactivation of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2. J Infect Dis 215:844-846
Odegard, Jared M; Flynn, Patrick A; Campbell, David J et al. (2016) A novel HSV-2 subunit vaccine induces GLA-dependent CD4 and CD8 T cell responses and protective immunity in mice and guinea pigs. Vaccine 34:101-9
Wang, Kening; Goodman, Kyle N; Li, Daniel Y et al. (2016) A Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) gD Mutant Impaired for Neural Tropism Is Superior to an HSV-2 gD Subunit Vaccine To Protect Animals from Challenge with HSV-2. J Virol 90:562-74
Lamers, Susanna L; Newman, Ruchi M; Laeyendecker, Oliver et al. (2015) Global Diversity within and between Human Herpesvirus 1 and 2 Glycoproteins. J Virol 89:8206-18
Çuburu, Nicolas; Wang, Kening; Goodman, Kyle N et al. (2015) Topical herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) vaccination with human papillomavirus vectors expressing gB/gD ectodomains induces genital-tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells and reduces genital disease and viral shedding after HSV-2 challenge. J Virol 89:83-96
Newman, Ruchi M; Lamers, Susanna L; Weiner, Brian et al. (2015) Genome Sequencing and Analysis of Geographically Diverse Clinical Isolates of Herpes Simplex Virus 2. J Virol 89:8219-32
Knipe, David M; Corey, Lawrence; Cohen, Jeffrey I et al. (2014) Summary and recommendations from a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) workshop on ""Next Generation Herpes Simplex Virus Vaccines"". Vaccine 32:1561-2
Ben-Sasson, S Z; Wang, K; Cohen, J et al. (2013) IL-1? strikingly enhances antigen-driven CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 78:117-24

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