Effect of immunization with a vaccinia-HIV env recombinant on HIV infection of chimpanzees

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and is now recognized as a worldwide epidemic for which there is no cure or vaccine. Chimpanzees are the only other animals that can be infected by HIV, and therefore the chimpanzee-HIV model system is useful for testing potential HIV vaccines. However, with one exception, there have been no reports of clinical manifestations of AIDS in chimpanzees. We report here results of an HIV vaccine trial in which nine chimpanzees were first immunized with either a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing the envelope glycoproteins of HIV strain LAV-1 (v-env5) or a control recombinant vaccinia virus and were then challenged with a high or low dose of LAV-1. Although HIV-specific antibody and T-cell responses were elicited by immunization, virus was isolated from lymphocytes of all challenged chimpanzees, indicating that immunization did not prevent infection by HIV. Among the animals that received a higher dose of LAV-1, one of two control chimpanzees, but none of the four v-env5-immunized chimpanzees developed substantial and persistent lymphadenopathy.