# Therapeutic Dendritic Cell Vaccine for HIV

> **NIH NIH DP1** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $847,500

## Abstract

Project Summary
The presence of a long-lived reservoir of latently infected CD4 T cells in HIV infected individuals requires that
they remain on antiretroviral drug regimens life-long. Rare elite controllers maintain virus loads below the level
of detection by standard clinical assays without antiretroviral treatment. The ability of such individuals to
suppress virus replication is associated with antiviral cytolytic T cells that are resistant to exhaustion as a
result of continuous receptor stimulation and checkpoint activation. The project will develop a therapeutic
lentiviral vector-based dendritic cell (DC) vaccine that enhances CD8 T cell responses and reverses
exhaustion to achieve a functional cure in which virus replication is suppressed without antiviral therapy. The
vaccine is based on lentiviral vectors delivered in virions that contain the SIV accessory protein Vpx for high
efficiency DC transduction and that express HIV-1 antigen, an immunostimulatory cytokine and a checkpoint
inhibitor. The antigen will be expressed as a fusion protein that allows for TAP-independent presentation on
class I major histocompatibility proteins. The ability of the vectors to induce anti-viral T cell responses will be
tested in vitro and in vivo. AIDS patient peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived DCs will be transduced
with the vectors and tested for their ability to activate and expand autologous HIV-specific T cells in a high
throughput ELISPOT assay that determines the epitope specificity and frequency of responding CD8 T cells
across the HIV genome. The ability of vector-transduced DCs to induce antigen specific T cells and to
suppress virus load will be determined in a humanized mouse model. The ability of the vaccine to reverse T
cell exhaustion and to stimulate protective responses will be evaluated in the lymphocytic choriomeningitis
virus mouse model. In addition, Vpx-containing lentiviral vectors will be tested in an engineered immunity
approach for the long-term in vivo expression of antiviral proteins in DCs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9857015
- **Project number:** 5DP1DA046100-03
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Nathaniel R. Landau
- **Activity code:** DP1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $847,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-03-01 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9857015

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9857015, Therapeutic Dendritic Cell Vaccine for HIV (5DP1DA046100-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9857015. Licensed CC0.

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