# Virus like particles as a therapeutic vaccine for HIV

> **NIH NIH K01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $130,140

## Abstract

Abstract
Candidate: The objective of this K01 SERCA application is to provide the mentorship, support, and protected
time necessary for Dr. Sarah Beck, DVM, PhD, DACVP to progress into a successful and productive career in
independent translational research in the field of vaccine immunology. Dr. Beck is a veterinarian with extensive
experience in viral immunology and nonhuman primate models of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Her
training at Johns Hopkins has provided her with expertise in a wide variety of animal models and comparative
pathology, and she also is a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP), making her
a uniquely qualified candidate for translational research. Under the mentorship of a well-rounded and
experienced scientific advisory committee and her co-mentors, Dr. Joel Blankson and Dr. Joseph Mankowski,
the proposed training will allow her to expand her expertise into the field of vaccine immunology and the use of
humanized mouse models of viral immunopathogenesis.
Research Plan: Despite the fact that combined antiretroviral therapy is able to control viral replication and
prolong the life of HIV infected individuals, HIV remains a pandemic without a cure. One of the largest
blockades to achieving HIV cure is proving to be the presence of virus in resting CD4+ T cell reservoirs. Myriad
studies have identified cell-mediated immunity (CMI) as an important mechanism for controlling viral
replication. Although effective combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) prevents new rounds of HIV infection, it
is incapable of eliminating pre-existing infected CD4+ cells, which are the most likely precursors to the majority
of latently infected cells. In contrast, CD8+ T cells are capable of eliminating either productively infected or
non-productively infected cells. This approach is supported by recent data using a CMV-based HIV vaccine,
which showed that the presence of vaccine-induced CD8+ T cells in primary infection in SIV-infected rhesus
were able to eliminate the viral reservoir entirely. The development of broad, persistent HIV Gag-specific CTL
responses is believed to play a major role in control of viral replication and determination of clinical outcome.
With this in mind, Dr. Beck plans to induce a robust, broad, HIV Gag-specific CD8+ T cell response using a
novel virus like protein (VLP) platform with the goal of reducing or eliminating the viral reservoir by inducing
effective CTL-mediated control of viral replication in primary HIV infection. This VLP vaccination strategy has
several advantages over other vaccine strategies: 1) this VLP is a subunit type vaccine constructed on a
bovine papillomavirus capsid, which is a foreign antigen to mice, monkeys, or humans, and therefore can be
used across species easily, 2) it preferentially stimulates CTL response over humoral responses, and 3) it is
able to induce a strong effector memory response. The overarching hypothesis of the proposed studies is that
v...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9996818
- **Project number:** 5K01OD021323-05
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** SARAH BECK
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $130,140
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-04 → 2021-02-08

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9996818

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9996818, Virus like particles as a therapeutic vaccine for HIV (5K01OD021323-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9996818. Licensed CC0.

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