Esteban Mariano
Poxvirus and Vaccines Lab, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, CSIC, Campus Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain.
Hum Vaccin. 2009 Dec;5(12):867-71. doi: 10.4161/hv.9693. Epub 2009 Dec 3.
As yet, the only human infectious disease eradicated from our planet is smallpox, caused by variola virus a member of the poxvirus family. The vaccination success, with the declaration by WHO in 1980 of a worldwide free of smallpox, was largely due to the availability of a quite effective and stable live vaccine, as well as the restricted human host for virus infection. Variola was considered one of the most devastating diseases of human mankind. With the sudden appearance of the HIV/AIDS in 1981, an infection which spread rapidly to become a pandemic in a short time, causing up to date more than 22 million deaths, about 40 million people infected and a current incidence of about 3 million deaths per year, this dreadful pandemic has become one of the most severe diseases in the World, specially in poor countries. While different antiviral drugs have been developed that block virus replication at various stages of infection, however the rapid virus escape that follows during the drug therapy due to mutations, makes the development of vaccines the most secure option to control and eradicate the disease. Numerous vaccines have been developed, but to date the clinical trials have failed to show any efficacy against HIV infection. Due to the proven success of vaccinia virus in the control of smallpox as well as of poxvirus recombinants against veterinary diseases, a major effort has been directed to document the advantages of poxvirus vectors as vaccines against multiple diseases. Two of the most promising poxvirus vectors are the highly attenuated modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) and the modified Copenhagen strain NYVAC. In this commentary I describe the biological characteristics of the attenuated poxvirus vectors, MVA and NYVAC, with emphasis in their application in HIV preclinical and clinical trials, and considerations as future HIV vaccines.
迄今为止，地球上唯一被根除的人类传染病是天花，它由痘病毒科的天花病毒引起。1980年世界卫生组织宣布全球消灭天花，疫苗接种取得成功，这在很大程度上归功于有相当有效且稳定的活疫苗，以及病毒感染的人类宿主有限。天花曾被认为是人类最具毁灭性的疾病之一。1981年艾滋病突然出现，这种感染迅速传播，在短时间内成为大流行病，截至目前已导致超过2200万人死亡，约4000万人感染，目前每年约有300万人死亡，这场可怕的大流行病已成为世界上最严重的疾病之一，在贫穷国家尤为如此。虽然已经开发出不同的抗病毒药物，可在感染的各个阶段阻断病毒复制，但药物治疗期间由于突变导致的病毒快速逃逸，使得开发疫苗成为控制和根除该疾病最可靠的选择。已经开发出许多疫苗，但迄今为止，临床试验未能显示出对艾滋病毒感染有任何疗效。由于痘苗病毒在控制天花以及痘病毒重组体防治兽医疾病方面已被证明是成功的，因此人们主要致力于证明痘病毒载体作为针对多种疾病的疫苗的优势。两种最有前景的痘病毒载体是高度减毒的安卡拉改良痘苗病毒（MVA）和改良哥本哈根株NYVAC。在这篇评论中，我描述了减毒痘病毒载体MVA和NYVAC的生物学特性，重点介绍它们在艾滋病毒临床前和临床试验中的应用，以及作为未来艾滋病毒疫苗的考虑因素。
