Assessment of mucosal immunity to HIV-1

Abstract

A key gap in the development and evaluation of HIV-1 vaccines is insufficient knowledge with regard to sampling techniques and assessment of mucosal immune responses required for early prevention and inhibition of viral dissemination. In an attempt to start bridging this gap, the EUROPRISE network of scientists working on HIV-1 vaccine and microbicide research organized a workshop with the aim to review the types of mucosal responses/biomarkers currently measured in mucosal immunology and to define how the mucosal responses/biomarkers are measured and/or the assays and sampling methods used. The Workshop addressed two critical questions: first whether, with current knowledge, it would be possible to define a consensus set of mucosal sampling methods to facilitate cross-species comparisons and ensure standardized implementation in clinical trials; second to determine the remaining challenges (technical and logistical) and their possible solutions for assessing mucosal responses to HIV-1 vaccines.

Keywords::

• assessment
• HIV vaccines
• humans
• macaques
• mice
• mucosal immunity
• rabbits

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank in particular the non-European participants Georgia Tomaras, Christine Mauck, Gustavo Doncel, Raina Fichorova and Tom Hope, and are indebted to their valuable verbal contributions at the meeting in Stockholm.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was financially supported in part by the EU Grants EUROPRISE and the European Microbicides Programme (EMPRO). Raphaelle El Habib has an affiliation with Sanofi Pasteur and Anna-Lena Spetz with Avaris AB. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.