Protection of macaques against AIDS with a live attenuated SHIV vaccine is of finite duration

Using background data that live vaccines against several viral pathogens are effective in inducing life-long protection against disease, we undertook studies in macaques to determine the duration of protection that two live SHIV vaccines could induce against AIDS. Earlier studies had established that macaques immunized once with a live vaccine and challenged 6 months later were protected, and that other macaques given two sequential inoculations of live vaccines were protected for at least one year. Protection was associated with persistence of the vaccine viruses. In this study, we sought to determine whether the duration of protection in macaques given a single inoculation of replication competent live vaccines would extend beyond three years. Two groups of four rhesus macaques were inoculated with two live SHIV vaccines, respectively. The viruses replicated transiently in all animals but at the 3 year time point, PCR analysis of PBMC did not detect DNA of either virus in any of the animals, and all were negative for CMI responses in the blood. All 8 animals succumbed to disease when challenged with pathogenic viruses.