Pre-existing immunity to pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes does not prevent induction of immune responses to feline immunodeficiency virus by a novel recombinant Listeria monocytogenes vaccine.

Listeria monocytogenes is an attractive biologic vaccine vector against HIV because it induces a strong cell mediated immune response, can be delivered by mucosal routes, can be readily manipulated to express viral antigens, and is easy and inexpensive to produce. Proof of concept studies have been performed using HIV Gag expressing recombinant L. monocytogenes in the mouse.

Oral immunization with recombinant listeria monocytogenes controls virus load after vaginal challenge with feline immunodeficiency virus.

Recombinant Listeria monocytogenes has many attractive characteristics as a vaccine vector against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Wild-type and attenuated Listeria strains expressing HIV Gag have been shown to induce long-lived mucosal and systemic T-cell responses in mice. Using the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) model of HIV we evaluated recombinant L.