The PedVacc 002 trial reported here demonstrated safety

of MVA-vectored vaccines expressing an HIV-1-derived Tanespimycin purchase immunogen in 20-week-old HIV-1-negative African infants born to HIV-1-positive mothers. Administration of one low MVA.HIVA vaccine dose without a heterologous prime or boost was not sufficiently immunogenic to induce HIV-1-specific, IFN-γ-producing T cells in the circulating blood of 20-week-old infants. There was also no indication of induction or boosting of infants’ HIV-1-specific T-cell responses through exposure to their mother’s virus. This is neither unexpected nor discouraging for future use of this vaccine modality. First, because of the young age of vaccine recipients, we used a low intramuscular dose of MVA.HIVA, which was 4-fold lower than the adult dose of 2 × 108 pfu [15] likely to be used in future studies. In addition, we and others have shown that vaccines vectored by MVA are poor primers of transgene-specific T-cell responses, but when given to well-primed individuals such as HIV-1-positive patients

on ART or volunteers whose responses have already been expanded KRX 0401 by DNA- and/or simian adenovirus-vectored vaccines, rMVA delivered up to a 10-fold boost to the existing frequencies of transgene-specific T-cells [15] and [28]. In our parallel PedVacc trials 001 and 002, this prudent rMVA vaccine dose was administered as the first stage of developing a recombinant BCG-MVA regimen with a possible extension to a dual HIV-TB vaccine platform [29], [30], [31],

[32], [33], [34] and [35]. Since the conception of these trials in 2007, both the immunogen design and its presentation to the immune system have evolved. Recently, a prime with non-replicating recombinant simian adenovirus followed by an rMVA boost was shown to induce high frequencies of transgene-specific T cells in UK adults [36], [37] and [38]. The immunogen HIVA has been replaced by a pan-clade immunogen based on the most conserved regions of the HIV-1 proteome [36] and [39], which addresses virus diversity and escape more efficiently [28]. Furthermore, for a final vaccine regimen, an efficient T-cell vaccine will likely be combined with vaccines inducing broadly neutralizing Ergoloid antibodies when these become available [40]. MVA.HIVA did not interfere with responses to polio, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus or Hib vaccines. However, a higher proportion of vaccinated infants failed to develop protective levels of antibodies to HBV. This difference was not observed in the PedVacc 001 study, where MVA.HIVA was administered to HIV-1-negative children of HIV-1-negative Gambian mothers and similar responses to the six childhood vaccines were found in vaccinees and controls [23]. A very good safety record of MVA.HIVA also concurs with candidate TB vaccine MVA85A, which was well tolerated in clinical trials in infants [26], [27], [41] and [42].