Replicating adenovirus vector prime/protein boost strategies for HIV vaccine development.

BACKGROUND: In recent years the HIV vaccine field introduced a number of promising vaccine candidates into human clinical trials. OBJECTIVE: To briefly discuss the advances made in vaccine development and HIV pathogenesis and give an overview of the body of work our lab has generated in multiple animal models on replication-competent Adenovirus recombinant vaccines. METHODS: Emphasis is placed on comparative examination of vaccine components, routes of immunization and challenge models using replicating Adenovirus vectors. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: The findings make the case that replicating Adenovirus vectors are superior in priming multiple arms of the immune system, and in conjunction with protein boosting, have resulted in dramatic protective efficacy leading to their advancement to Phase I trials. Implications of the recent halting of the Merck Ad5-HIV Phase IIb clinical trial of our vaccine approach and other vectored vaccines are discussed.