MUVADEN - Mucosal Vaccines Against Human and Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses Based on Dendritic Cells

There is urgent need for HIV vaccines with high protective efficacy, low cost and simple immunisation schedule. Aim of this project is to assess in the macaque model the efficacy of(i) new vaccine candidates (lipid-DNA; single cycle lent viral vector; recombinant S.gordonii) made by our consortium;(ii) prime-boost vaccination strategies with/without adjuvant (GM-CSF, TNF-alpha, Cog motifs) and(iii) route of vaccine application (via the tonsils vs. potential) for inducing immunity and protect ion to mussel challenge. We also address to vaccine biology at dendrite cell level. With the oral route we target dendrite cells that are numerous at this site and mature them with adjuvant. Thus, we expect to see an enhanced immunity, a low viral set point (undetectable virus by infectious unit and RNA assays) or at least a reduction of viral load (100 RNA copies/ml of plasma), clinical well-being and normal CD4 counts and function.