title: The challenges and opportunities for the development of a T-cell epitope-based herpes simplex vaccine.
abstract: Herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 (HSV-1 & HSV-2) infections have been prevalent since the ancient Greek times. To this day, they still affect a staggering number of over a billion individuals worldwide. HSV-1 infections are predominant than HSV-2 infections and cause potentially blinding ocular herpes, oro-facial herpes and encephalitis. HSV-2 infections cause painful genital herpes, encephalitis, and death in newborns. While prophylactic and therapeutic HSV vaccines remain urgently needed for centuries, their development has been difficult. During the most recent National Institute of Health (NIH) workshop titled "Next Generation Herpes Simplex Virus Vaccines: The Challenges and Opportunities", basic researchers, funding agencies, and pharmaceutical representatives gathered: (i) to assess the status of herpes vaccine research; and (ii) to identify the gaps and propose alternative approaches in developing a safe and efficient herpes vaccine. One "common denominator" among previously failed clinical herpes vaccine trials is that they either used a whole virus or a whole viral protein, which contain both "pathogenic symptomatic" and "protective asymptomatic" antigens and epitopes. In this report, we continue to advocate developing "asymptomatic" epitope-based sub-unit vaccine strategies that selectively incorporate "protective asymptomatic" epitopes which: (i) are exclusively recognized by effector memory CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells (TEM cells) from "naturally" protected seropositive asymptomatic individuals; and (ii) protect human leukocyte antigen (HLA) transgenic animal models of ocular and genital herpes. We review the role of animal models in herpes vaccine development and discuss their current status, challenges, and prospects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697-4375, USA.
authors.forename: Tiffany
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697-4375, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697-4375, USA.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Badakhshan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697-4375, USA.
authors.forename: Sravya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chilukuri
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697-4375, USA; Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA; Institute for Immunology, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. Electronic address: Lbenmoha@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Lbachir
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: BenMohamed
mesh_terms: D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D022283:Herpesvirus Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D023421:Models, Animal; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D022283:Herpesvirus Vaccines
keywords: Asymptomatic; Clinical trials; Epitopes; Herpes simplex virus; Immunotherapeutic; Symptomatic; Vaccines