Reduced SIV viral load in semen of vaccinated rhesus monkeys

摘要

A prototype vaccine administered to male rhesus macaques reduced the viral load in semen compared with a control group and is reported in Journal of Virology. Researchers based at Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (NM, USA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (MD, USA) immunized rhesus macques with vaccine vectors expressing SIV-Gag and -Pol, both structural proteins common to HIV and SIV, along with a control group. Both groups were subject to intravenous challenge with a highly pathogenic SIV quasi-species and samples of semen were analyzed for SIV-RNA levels following infection.