The goal of our project is to develop vaccine strategies that will target viral pathogens underlying the most common AIDS malignancies even in the unfavorable immunologic setting of low CD4+ T cell counts that typically characterizes HIV-infected patients. In this proposal, we have chosen as our model target Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus (KSHV or HHV8), the etiologic agent of KS, primary effusion lymphoma and multicentric Castleman's disease. Specifically, we will identify relevant CD8+ T cell epitopes from gene products of KSHV and develop vaccination schemes that will elicit effector and memory CD8+ T cells specific for these epitopes. This project has the potential to provide relevant targets for the vaccination of vulnerable patient populations or the adoptive transfer therapy of afflicted individuals, and evidence for the efficacy of novel vaccination approaches in immunocompromised patients. This application is highly relevant to the goals of the RFA and, thus, more suitable for the Grand Opportunities solicitation rather than the Challenges Grant: It will provide the opportunity to expand a nascent but already fruitful cross- disciplinary collaboration between the Kedes and Bullock laboratories, leading to the identification of vaccine targets, a novel model system to test the relevance of the selected targets and the efficacy of the vaccination approaches being studied (potentially validating their use for multiple malignancies and disease states associated with immunocompromised individuals), and immediate new employment opportunities with additional ones as the program grows.
People with HIV/AIDS are unable to fight off many infectious diseases, including specific viruses that can cause cancers. Despite good HIV therapy available in relatively wealthy countries such as the U.S. and other developed nations, nearly one third of all deaths in AIDS patients are due to cancer and one half of these are caused by one of two viruses, EBV and lesser known one, KSHV. In the research that we are proposing, we are focusing on KSHV, which causes Kaposi's sarcoma, the single most common AIDS-related cancer. It is our hope to develop a better understanding of how immune cells in the body normally recognize and suppress KSHV and the cancers it can cause and then to develop new ways of using vaccines made from parts of this virus to boost the ability of AIDS patients to fight off KSHV and prevent and treat the diseases it causes.
