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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Analysis of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus-specific CD8+ T-cells in Rhesus Macaques by Peptide-MHC-I Tetramer Staining
Published on: December 23, 2016
Developing a neonatal HIV vaccine: insights from macaque models of pediatric HIV/AIDS
Marta L Marthas1, Christopher J Miller
1aCalifornia National Primate Research Center, USA bPathology, Microbiology and Immunology Department School of Veterinary Medicine, USA cCenter for Comparative Medicine, University of California, Davis, California, USA.
Purpose Of Review:
This review analyzes recent findings from nonhuman primate models of HIV/AIDS that are most relevant to developing active neonatal vaccine strategies against HIV breast milk transmission. We focus on studies published from 2005 to early 2007 that have characterized simian immunodeficiency virus or simian/human immunodeficiency virus transmission and the efficacy of HIV vaccine strategies in neonatal macaques.
Recent Findings:
Nonhuman primate models of natural HIV breast milk transmission recapitulate many features of infection in human infants; however, the variation in timing and overall low rate of infection in these models precludes their use in conducting vaccine studies. Oral inoculation of infant macaques with defined viral inocula results in reliable transmission and is an efficient model for evaluating neonatal HIV vaccine strategies. All HIV vaccine strategies tested in neonatal macaques are immunogenic, but only a subset of these vaccines confer significant protection against virus acquisition or simian AIDS after oral challenge.
Summary:
Candidate HIV vaccine strategies can elicit virus-specific humoral and cell-mediated immune responses in newborn primates; however, vaccine immunogenicity in infant macaques is not a reliable criterion for predicting a vaccine's efficacy against oral virus challenge exposure.
