法国国家科研中心以及国家健康与医学研究所的研究人员在美国最新一期 Immunity 杂志上报告说，他们研制的一种新型艾滋病疫苗在雌性猕猴身上实验成功。实验结果表明，疫苗能够有效防止艾滋病通过性途径传播。

为了验证疫苗的有效性，研究人员对5只雌性猕猴进行了鼻部和肌肉注射。结果显示，在疫苗的保护下，雌性猕猴对阴道感染艾滋病产生了免疫，其血清化验始终呈现阴性。此外，进一步的实验表明，这种新型疫苗对预防普遍存在于欧美和印度的艾滋病B亚型和C亚型病毒效果明显。

法国国家科研中心的摩根·邦塞尔表示，这种疫苗目前仅在雌性猕猴身上实验成功，而且获得这一结果的前提是实验对象的阴道没有创伤，如果要进一步确认疫苗的有效性，还需要对雄性猕猴展开实验。

推荐原文出处：

Immunity, (in press) DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2011.01.015

Immunization with HIV-1 gp41 Subunit Virosomes Induces Mucosal Antibodies Protecting Nonhuman Primates against Vaginal SHIV Challenges

Morgane Bomsel, Daniela Tudor, Anne-Sophie Drillet, Annette Alfsen, Yonatan Ganor, Marie-Ga?lle Roger, Nicolas Mouz, Mario Amacker, Anick Chalifour, Lorenzo Diomede, Gilles Devillier, Zhe Cong, Qiang Wei, Hong Gao, Chuan Qin, Gui-Bo Yang, Rinaldo Zurbriggen, Lucia Lopalco, Sylvain Fleury

Highlights

A gp41-based mucosal vaccine fully protects monkeys from vaginal SHIV challenge

Protection correlates with transcytosis blocking gp41-specific mucosal IgAs

Protection correlates also with gp41-MPER-specific mucosal IgGs with ADCC activities

In contrast, no antiviral activities are detected in the blood

Summary

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 is mainly transmitted mucosally during sexual intercourse. We therefore evaluated the protective efficacy of a vaccine active at mucosal sites. Macaca mulatta monkeys were immunized via both the intramuscular and intranasal routes with an HIV-1 vaccine made of gp41-subunit antigens grafted on virosomes, a safe delivery carrier approved in humans with self-adjuvant properties. Six months after 13 vaginal challenges with simian-HIV (SHIV)-SF162P3, four out of five vaccinated animals remained virus-negative, and the fifth was only transiently infected. None of the five animals seroconverted to p27gag-SIV. In contrast, all 6 placebo-vaccinated animals became infected and seroconverted. All protected animals showed gp41-specific vaginal IgAs with HIV-1 transcytosis-blocking properties and vaginal IgGs with neutralizing and/or antibody-dependent cellular-cytotoxicity activities. In contrast, plasma IgGs totally lacked virus-neutralizing activity. The protection observed challenges the paradigm whereby circulating antiviral antibodies are required for protection against HIV-1 infection and may serve in designing a human vaccine against HIV-1-AIDS.