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HIV vaccine development in Canada

New Content ItemEdited by Eric Arts and Yong Gao

On December 14th and 15th 2016, in Ottawa, Ontario, the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI) Research and Development Alliance Coordinating Office (ACO) hosted Canadian researchers to discuss past successes and current priorities related to advancing HIV vaccine research in Canada.  About 30 Canadian scientists involved in vaccine research were joined by scientific representatives from the International and European AIDS vaccine initiatives (IAVI and EAVI2020, respectively), by keynote speakers Dr. William Schief from the Scripps Research Institute and Dr. Robin Shattock from Imperial College London, and by representatives from Canadian Federal government funding agencies, including the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Ministry of Health, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The meeting featured a number of sessions highlighting the HIV vaccine research projects, both large and small, that have been funded by the CHVI over last 10 years. Our Canadian scientists are also internationally renowned researchers working in the area of HIV vaccine research with world leading strengths. Discussions amongst our research colleagues and invited guests, Drs. Schief and Shattock, identified a clear need for increased solidarity within the HIV vaccine research community, for enhanced partnerships with larger global vaccine consortia (e.g. IAVI and EAVI2020), and the need to highlight the incredible contributions by Canadian scientist to area of vaccine development. In relation to the latter, AIDS Research and Therapy has commissioned a special issue devoted to HIV vaccine-related research and entertained submission by Canadian researchers. This issue is not intended to highlight Canadian-centric research in this area but instead to showcase how Canadian scientist contribute to the overall goal of developing an effective HIV vaccine. The authors in this issue provide outstanding and clear opinions/reviews on key topics related to understanding the underlying factors for vaccine design, vaccine delivery strategies, adjuvants, and other prevention measures, as well as therapeutic vaccines.

This collection of articles has been partially sponsored. All articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Guest Editors declare no competing interests.

View all collections in AIDS Research and Therapy.

  1. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), like many other Rhabdoviruses, have become the focus of intense research over the past couple of decades based on their suitability as vaccine vectors, transient gene delivery...

    Authors: Trina Racine, Gary P. Kobinger and Eric J. Arts
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:55
  2. HIV preferentially infects activated CD4+ T cells and mutates rapidly. The classical vaccine approach aimed to generate broad immune responses to full HIV proteins largely failed to address the potential adver...

    Authors: Hongzhao Li, Robert W. Omange, Francis A. Plummer and Ma Luo
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:51
  3. For over three decades, HIV infection has had a tremendous impact on the lives of individuals and public health. Microbicides and vaccines studies have shown that immune activation at the genital tract is a ri...

    Authors: Julie Lajoie, Lucy Mwangi and Keith R. Fowke
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:46
  4. Finding new adjuvants is an integrated component of the efforts in developing an effective HIV-1 vaccine. Compared with traditional adjuvants, a modern adjuvant in the context of HIV-1 prevention would elicit ...

    Authors: Jun Liu and Mario Ostrowski
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:43
  5. Collective evidence supporting a role of Antibody-Dependent Cell-Mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC) in controlling HIV-1 transmission and disease progression emerged in the last few years. Non-neutralizing antibodie...

    Authors: Jonathan Richard, Shilei Ding and Andrés Finzi
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:42
  6. Despite the tremendous success of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) no current treatment can eradicate latent HIV reservoirs from HIV-infected individuals or generate, effective HIV-specific immunity. Technologica...

    Authors: Amy E. Baxter, Julia Niessl, Antigoni Morou and Daniel E. Kaufmann
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:40
  7. While the prevalence of Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infection has stabilized globally, it continues to be the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. The majority of new infections a...

    Authors: Danielle Vitali, Jocelyn M. Wessels and Charu Kaushic
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:39
  8. The anti-HIV activity of natural killer (NK) cells could be induced fast enough to potentially prevent the establishment of HIV infection. Epidemiological studies identified two genotypes encoding NK receptors...

    Authors: Nicole F. Bernard
    Citation: AIDS Research and Therapy 2017 14:38