Development Of Vaccines For Genital Herpes Simplex Infection

National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) causes genital herpes and increases the risk of transmission and infection with HIV. Thus, a vaccine for HSV-2 would not only reduce the rate of genital herpes, but also might reduce spread of HIV. Several HSV-2 vaccines have been tested in humans for prevention or reduction of genital herpes disease, but none has been licensed for use in humans. Previously, we evaluated a replication-defective HSV-2 vaccine in mice and guinea pigs and found that it was highly immunogenic and effective to prevent HSV-2 disease. Unfortunately, when we performed a phase 1 clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center in healthy women, we found that the vaccine was only modestly immunogenic. Vaccination of HSV-2 uninfected women resulted in lower antibody titers and virus-specific T cells responses than in previously infected women. Further development of the vaccine has not progressed. We are currently using other approaches to HSV-2 vaccine development, including expressing HSV-2 proteins in virus vectored vaccines.