Abstract
Europrise is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission within the 6th Framework programme from 2007 to 2012. The Network has involved over 50 institutions from 13 European countries together with 3 industrial partners and 6 African countries. The Network encompasses an integrated program of research, training, dissemination and advocacy within the field of HIV vaccines and microbicides. A central and timely theme of the Network is the development of the unique concept of co-usage of vaccines and microbicides. Training of PhD students has been a major task, and some of these post-graduate students have here summarized novel ideas emanating from presentations at the last annual Europrise meeting in Prague. The latest data and ideas concerning HIV vaccine and microbicide studies are included in this review; these studies are so recent that the majority have yet to be published. Data were presented and discussed concerning novel immunisation strategies; microbicides and PrEP (alone and in combination with vaccines); mucosal transmission of HIV/SIV; mucosal vaccination; novel adjuvants; neutralizing antibodies; innate immune responses; HIV/SIV pathogenesis and disease progression; new methods and reagents. These – necessarily overlapping topics - are comprehensively summarised by the Europrise students in the context of other recent exciting data.
Highlights
The 2011 Network Annual Conference of Europrise was held from 14th to 17th November in Prague, the Czech Republic, and was attended by 100 partners from 31 European institutions, two members of the advisory board, ten affiliated partners and eight invited guests
Differences in protection rates across these clinical trials may be explained by a variety of factors, including the heterogeneity of study populations, the route and frequency of dosing, as well as differential levels of tenofovir metabolites in the vagina compared to the rectum after oral dosing, and much higher levels of active drug in the genital tract after topical antiretroviral treatment
The precise threshold of drug required for protection has yet to be determined, it was shown that topical administration achieved the highest levels of drug in the genital tract and low systemic levels
Summary
The 2011 Network Annual Conference of Europrise was held from 14th to 17th November in Prague, the Czech Republic, and was attended by 100 partners from 31 European institutions, two members of the advisory board, ten affiliated partners and eight invited guests. Following challenge with SHIV SF162.P4 viral load was inversely correlated with AID in B-cells and APOBEC 3 G in B- and T-cells of infected animals, suggesting that the MHC/SHIV vaccine construct stimulated parallel responses by the two deaminases that might be involved in pre-entry and post-entry control of SHIV replication [15].
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