Programming cytomegalovirus as an HIV vaccine

The initial development of cytomegalovirus (CMV) as a vaccine vector for HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) was predicated on its potential to pre-position high-frequency, effector-differentiated, CD8⁺ T cells in tissues for immediate immune interception of nascent primary infection. This goal was achieved and also led to the unexpected discoveries that non-human primate (NHP) CMVs can be programmed to differentially elicit CD8⁺ T cell responses that recognize viral peptides via classical MHC-Ia, and/or MHC-II, and/or MHC-E, and that MHC-E-restricted CD8⁺ T cell responses can uniquely mediate stringent arrest and subsequent clearance of highly pathogenic SIV, an unprecedented type of vaccine-mediated protection. These discoveries delineate CMV vector-elicited MHC-E-restricted CD8⁺ T cells as a functionally distinct T cell response with the potential for superior efficacy against HIV-1, and possibly other infectious agents or cancers.