BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Infectious disease

July 25, 2017 8:43 PM UTC

Macaque studies suggest adding a boost containing five HIV gp120 variants to HIV vaccine regimens could help prevent infection by the virus. The boost consists of the adjuvant GLA-SE and five disease-associated gp120 variants from the HIV-1 B and E subtypes. In a HeLa cell-based neutralization assay, plasma from macaques immunized with a primary vaccine consisting of a canarypox viral vector encoding HIV-1 subtype E gp120, HIV gag polyprotein and HIV protease plus the boost increased neutralization of a chimeric strain of simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) compared with plasma from macaques immunized with the primary vaccine plus a boost consisting of GLA-SE and two of the gp120 variants. In macaques challenged with another strain of SHIV, the vaccine plus the GLA-SE/five gp 120 variant boost prevented infection in five of nine animals, whereas the vaccine plus the GLA-SE/two gp120 variant boost prevented infection in one of nine animals. Next steps could include testing the boost in combination with other HIV vaccines in the models.

Immune Design Corp. has GLA-SE (G100), a toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) agonist and therapeutic vaccine, in Phase I/II testing to treat follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and in Phase I testing to treat metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and merkel cell carcinoma (MCC)...