Grant: Catalyst Grant: HIV/AIDS Vaccine Discovery Research (Can HIV Vaccine Initiative)

Vaccines administered to individuals already infected with a pathogen are called thrapeutic vaccines. In chronic human immunofdeficiency virus (HIV) infection,therapeutic vaccines stimulate pre-existing and new immunity against HIV. If boosted immunity more effectively suppresses HIV replication, this could offer broader treatment options where antiretroviral drugs are not widely available and reduce dependence on antiretroviral drugs elsewhere. While therapeutic vaccines tend to focus on conserved portions of HIV or sequences known to be present in the infected individuals, we plan to test sequence variants that arise rarely in nature. Our hypothesis is that the immune system rapidly selects against variants that are more immunogenic than common sequences. Therefore, such sequences as rarely occur naturally in HIV may be more effective in therapeutic vaccines than the common sequences currently employed. Our research project aims to demonstrate this possibility and identify HIV peptide sequence variants with this characteristic for inclusion in future therapeutic HIV vaccines.