Inactivated simian immunodeficiency virus-pulsed autologous fresh blood cells as an immunotherapy strategy

Abstract

Practical immunotherapies for human immunodeficiency virus infection are needed. We evaluated inactivated simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) pulsed onto fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells in 12 pigtail macaques with chronic SIVmac251 infection for T-cell immunogenicity in a randomized cross-over design study. The immunotherapy was safe and convincingly induced high levels of SIV-specific CD4+ T-cell responses (mean, 5.9% ± 1.3% of all CD4+ T cells) and to a lesser extent SIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses (mean, 0.7% ± 0.4%). Responses were primarily directed toward Gag and less frequently toward Env but not Pol or regulatory/accessory SIV proteins. T-cell responses against Gag were g..