Improbability of effective vaccination against human immunodeficiency virus because of its intracellular transmission and rectal portal of entry.
- 15 September 1992
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 89 (18) , 8852-8855
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.89.18.8852
Abstract
The worldwide effort to produce a vaccine against AIDS continues to disregard the fact that even human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific neutralizing antibodies and cell-mediated immunity are ineffective against virus within cells without viral antigens on the cell membrane--and that much of HIV infection is transmitted in this manner. According to a recent report, a simian immunodeficiency virus vaccine that protected monkeys against an intravenous challenge with cell-free virus was, as predicted, ineffective against an intravenous challenge with the same amount of virus in infected cells. Moreover, antibody and HIV have been found to coexist in cell-free plasma from asymptomatic and symptomatic patients. Excluding direct introduction of HIV into the blood-stream, the most common and efficient form of transmission of HIV infection is by receptive anal intercourse, and semen contains large numbers of infected cells per milliliter. Recent reports showing that colorectal cells can be persistently infected by HIV and that HIV RNA and cDNA are present in the cells of the colon of dead AIDS patients indicate that either cell-free or intracellular HIV has the capacity to multiply at the portal of entry in the colorectal area without interference from neutralizing antibodies. The available data provide no basis for testing any HIV vaccine in human beings either before or after infection. The main challenge is to find a way to kill cells with chromosomally integrated HIV cDNA without harming normal cells, perhaps by identifying repressor proteins that might be produced by the cells with integrated HIV cDNA and thus could become specific targets for cell-killing drugs.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- AIDS vaccine developmentsNature, 1992
- AIDS vaccine developmentsNature, 1992
- The Ability of Certain SIV Vaccines to Provoke Reactions Against Normal CellsScience, 1992
- Prevention of HIV Infection by Passive Immunization with HIV ImmunoglobulinAIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 1991
- Mucosal transmission of HIVNature, 1991
- Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection of Macaques: End-Stage Disease Is Characterized by Widespread Distribution of Proviral DNA in TissuesThe Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1991
- Effectiveness of AIDS VaccinesScience, 1991
- Protection of chimpanzees from infection by HIV-1 after vaccination with recombinant glycoprotein gp120 but not gp160Nature, 1990
- Quantitation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in the Blood of Infected PersonsNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- A Formalin-Inactivated Whole SIV Vaccine Confers Protection in MacaquesScience, 1989