Epimmune Inc. (San Diego, CA) is starting clinical trials with is lead product, an HIV vaccine. Patients will begin treatment in about a month at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Denver, CO); the Phase I/II trial is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Epimmune's EP HIV-1090 vaccine candidate comprises 21 cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes -- small parts of antigens that elicit an immune response -- selected from conserved regions of multiple HIV virusproteins. The proteins that the epitopes came from are pol, gag, env, vpr, nef, rev and tat. Using conserved epitopes might make it harder for the virus to develop mutations that can escape the immune response, which is the main roadblock to developingHIV vaccines. Using epitopes from the antigens instead of the whole antigen, as some other vaccine developers are doing, also allowed Epimmune to include all those epitopes, which wouldn't have fit if the whole proteins were used. The vaccine will be delivered as DNA formulated with PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone), a polymer that has adjuvant activity similar to the effect Merck & Co, Inc. (Whitehouse Station, NJ) is seeing with the poloxamer CRL-1005, an adjuvant it is using with its HIV vaccine. EP HIV-1090will also include Epimmune's Padre universal T-cell epitope designed to enhance the magnitude and duration of CTL responses.
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机译：Epimmune Inc.（加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥）正在使用一种主要产品HIV疫苗开始临床试验。患者将在科罗拉多大学健康科学中心（科罗拉多州丹佛）开始大约一个月的治疗; I / II期试验由美国国立卫生研究院（马里兰州贝塞斯达）赞助。 Epimmune的EP HIV-1090候选疫苗包含21种细胞毒性T淋巴细胞（CTL）表位-引起免疫应答的抗原的一小部分-从多种HIV病毒蛋白的保守区域中选择。表位来自的蛋白质是pol，gag，env，vpr，nef，rev和tat。使用保守的表位可能会使病毒更难以产生可以逃避免疫反应的突变，这是开发HIV疫苗的主要障碍。正如其他一些疫苗开发人员所做的那样，使用来自抗原的表位而不是整个抗原，也使Epimmune包括了所有那些表位，如果使用整个蛋白则不适合。疫苗将以与PVP（聚乙烯吡咯烷酮）配制的DNA一起提供，聚乙烯吡咯烷酮是一种具有佐剂活性的聚合物，其作用类似于默克公司（新泽西州怀特豪斯市）正在使用的泊洛沙姆CRL-1005佐剂。带有艾滋病毒疫苗。 EP HIV-1090还包括Epimmune的Padre通用T细胞表位，旨在提高CTL反应的强度和持续时间。
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