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Conditional reduction of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication by a gain-of-herpes simplex virus 1
S M Smith1, R B Markham, K T Jeang
1Molecular Virology Section, Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-0460, USA.
Abstract:
The development of an effective vaccine for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) would be a major advance toward controlling the AIDS pandemic. Several disparate strategies for a safe and effective HIV vaccine have been proposed. Recent data suggest that loss-of-function live-attenuated virus could be a safe lentivirus vaccine. Here, we propose a gain-of-function approach that can complement loss-of-function in enhancing the safety profile of a live-attenuated virus. We describe an example in which ganciclovir (GCV) was used to treat effectively nef(-)HIV-1 engineered to express herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) thymidine kinase (TK). This treatment was found to be highly efficient in controlling HIV-1 spread in tissue culture and in a small animal (hu-PBL-SCID) model. We demonstrate that one distinct advantage of GCV-HSV-TK treatment is the elimination of integrated proviruses, a goal not easily achieved with other antiretrovirals.