| Making
the vaccine
 University
of Cape Town (UCT)
Contact:
Prof. Anna-Lise Williamson
Tel: +27 21 406 6124
E-mail: annalise@curie.uct.ac.za
Developing
novel candidate vaccines
The
UCT group is investigating different strategies
to make vaccines, based on the HIV-1 subtype
C virus, the dominant strain circulating in southern
Africa. The mission is to develop HIV-1C
vaccines that are effective and affordable, and
to advance the most promising vaccines or combination
vaccines to clinical trial. The group consists
of a multidisciplinary team of over 30 people
with Professor Anna-Lise Williamson as Research
Director, and Professors Carolyn Williamson,
Enid Shephard, Ed Rybicki and Dr William Bourn
as Principal Investigators.
The
first vaccines selected to move forward to
clinical trials are DNA vaccines and a modified
vaccinia virus Ankara vaccine (MVA). This
DNA prime-MVA boost combination is one of the
most promising vaccine strategies.
These vaccines are currently being manufactured for clinical trials.
The
next most promising vaccine is the virus-like
particle (VLP) vaccine based on an HIV-1 subtype
C Pr55 gag protein, produced in insect cells
via recombinant baculovirus. Initial studies
show good immune responses in animal models primed
with DNA gag C vaccine and boosted with gag C
VLPs.
A
longer-term project is aiming to optimise bacterial
vectors as vaccine delivery vehicles. BCG
- better known as the TB vaccine - would have
many advantages, as production capacity is available
locally and production costs are also low in
comparison to other vaccines. Although
rBCG expressing HIV-1 proteins induces an immune
response in animal models, it is not yet optimal
for use as a vaccine. Several approaches
are being taken to improve this response. The
common gut bacterium Salmonella is also
being investigated as a vaccine vector.
Monitoring
HIV-1 diversity in preparation for vaccine
trials
HIV
diversity remains one of the greatest challenges
for developing an effective vaccine: viruses
belonging to the same subtype can vary up to
15% in regions of the genome, compared with 35%
variation between subtypes. It is not yet understood
how viral diversity will impact on vaccine efficacy.
The purpose of the HIV diversity study is to
provide a comprehensive analysis of subtype distribution
and genetic diversity in vaccine trial sites
in South Africa. The study aims to define regions
under selection in natural infection and will
contribute data to future investigations on the
impact of vaccine immune pressure on sequence
diversity in vaccine trial ‘breakthrough’ infections.
It also aims to investigate the relevance of
viral diversity in vaccine design.
View
a list of publications
and conference papers for the UCT group's
HIV/AIDS vaccine-related work.
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Partners
Making the vaccines
 The University of Cape Town (UCT)
Testing the vaccines
HIV Vaccine Research Unit, MRC, Durban
HIV Vaccine Division of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU)
Aurum Health
Cape Town Clinical Trials Consortium
Immunology assessment
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
Ethical issues
HIV/AIDS Vaccine Ethics Group (HAVEG), University of KwaZulu-Natal
Community involvement
Masikhulisane SAAVI Community Involvement Group
Behavioural science
Socio-behavioural research group
Actuarial assessments
Actuarial Group
Data and bioinformatics
Data Management (MRC) |
