45 results about "HIV Proteins" patented technology

Nucleic acids are disclosed encoding fusion proteins comprising the amino acid sequence of at least four non-attenuated HIV proteins selected from the group consisting of Vif, Vpr, Vpu, Vpx, Rev, Tat, and Nef, wherein the fusion protein does not contain a specific cleavage sequence for a cellular protease. Also disclosed are vectors comprising the nucleic acids and methods of preparing the fusion protein by transfecting a host cell with the nucleic acids or with the vectors containing the nucleic acids, expressing the fusion proteins, and recovering the fusion proteins.

The invention relates to polynucleotides for DNA vaccination which polynucleotides encode an HIV envelope protein or fragment or immunogenic derivative fused to an additional HIV protein selected from a non-structural protein or capsid protein or fragment or immunogenic derivative thereof. Preferably the HIV envelope molecule is gp120 and preferred fusions include one or more of HIV Nef, Gag, RT or Tat. Preferably the HIV envelope molecule is non-glycosylated in mammalian cells.

The present invention provides a new semi-stable packaging cell line and a method to produce lentiviral vectors (LV), using the semi-stable packaging cell line. New methods and packaging cell lines of the invention are generated using a baculo-AAV hybrid system for stable expression of structural and regulatory lentiviral proteins, such system comprising a baculoviral backbone containing an integration cassette flanked by AAV ITRs, in combination with a plasmid encoding rep protein. This system allows to obtain a stable integration of the structural and regulatory HIV-1 proteins gag / pol and rev. The system allows to obtain a cell line including the structural and regulatory HIV proteins gag / pol and rev, to be used for a semi-stable LV production.

A sample collection system capable of collecting, storing and dispensing a liquid sample is disclosed. The collection system includes a collector composed of a material which has the unique ability to express constituents of interest at levels which are more concentrated than their levels in the fluid samples from which they are expressed, where the expressed highly concentrated sample can then be used with modern rapid screening / testing protocols, such as solid phase assays, to test for the constituents of interest. Thus, it is now possible to obtain analytes of interest, such as the HIV protein antibodies, from saliva samples at concentrations that are representative of that found in serum or plasma. The collector is sized and shaped to fit within a recovery container, which, in turn, is sized and shaped to fit within a collection tube. The recovery container includes an aperture which does not permit passage of fluid under ambient conditions, but facilitates transfer thereof when subject to pressure. An optional channel within the collection tube facilitates dispensing of the sample for further processing.

The present invention relates to nucleic acid and attenuated vaccinia vectors for prophylactic use against HIV infection, as well as methods of eliciting immune responses in subjects susceptible to HIV infection. The prophylactic vaccine regimen of the invention involves immunological priming with an inoculum comprising two novel DNA vectors, followed by boosting with a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) recombinant viral vector expressing the corresponding HIV proteins.

A sample collection system capable of collecting, storing and dispensing a liquid sample is disclosed. The collection system includes a collector composed of a material which has the unique ability to express constituents of interest at levels which are much more concentrated than their levels in the fluid samples from which they are expressed, where the expressed highly concentrated sample can then be used with modern rapid screening / testing protocols, such as solid phase assays, to test for the constituents of interest. Thus, it is now possible to obtain analytes of interest, such as the HIV protein antibodies, from saliva samples at concentrations that are detectable with systems and / or devices that are typically utilized only for blood serum or plasma testing. The collector is sized and shaped to fit within a recovery container, which, in turn, is sized and shaped to fit within a collection tube. The recovery container includes an aperture which does not permit passage of fluid under ambient conditions, but facilitates transfer thereof when subjected to pressure. An optional channel within the collection tube facilitates dispensing of the sample for further processing.

Instead of generating immune responses to several HIV proteins and risk over activating more CD4+ T cells (easy targets for HIV-1 infection) as current candidate vaccines try to do, a lower magnitude, narrowly focused, well maintained virus specific CD8+ T cell response to multiple subtypes should destroy and eliminate a few founder viruses without inducing inflammatory responses that may activate more CD4+ T cells and provide more targets for HIV-1 virus infection. Specifically, described herein is a method that focuses the immune response to the 12 protease cleavage sites.

The present invention provides new stable packaging cell lines and producer cell lines as well as methods to obtain them, and a new method to produce lentiviral vectors using such cell lines. New methods and packaging cell lines of the invention are generated using a baculo-AAV hybrid system for stable expression of structural and regulatory lentiviral proteins, such system comprising a baculoviral backbone containing an integration cassette flanked by AAV ITR, in combination with a plasmid encoding rep protein. This system allows to obtain a stable integration of the structural and regulatory HIV-1 proteins gag / pol and rev. The system allows to obtain a first intermediate including only the structural and regulatory HIV proteins gag / pol and rev, to be used as starting point to obtain stable packaging cell lines as well as producer cell lines.