Volume 71 Number 2 March 2004	back to contents

From the ¹Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Penn State University, Hershey, PA; ²State Serum Institute, Infection Immunology, Vaccine Section, Copenhagen, Denmark; ³Division of Nephrology, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY; and ⁴Section of Nephrology, Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx NY.

Address all correspondence to Erik Langhoff, M.D., Ph.D., Bronx VA Medical Center, Room 9C-11F, 120 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx NY 10468; email: Erik.Langhoff@med.va.gov

Dr. Langhoff was supported by NIH grant AI28734.

Adapted from a Grand Rounds presentation to the Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY on September 12, 2000 and updated as of April 2003.

ABSTRACT

Most healthy individuals have been exposed to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and harbor the virus in a dormant form. However, in situations of immune compromise, HCMV infection is associated with high mortality rates in recipients of bone marrow transplants and with significant morbidity in recipients of solid organ transplants. Conventional vaccination with attenuated HCMV or HCMV proteins fails to prime protective immune responses, presumably because the antigens fail to be presented effectively in vivo . Dendritic cells (DC) are professional antigen-presenting cells that can be genetically engineered to direct their ability to induce immune responses toward immunodominant HCMV antigens. DC are a distinct lineage of leukocytes whose function is most notable for their ability to form clusters with T cells and stimulate vigorous cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses. We hypothesize that in this capacity, DC engineered to express HCMV antigens are uniquely positioned to control immunity against HCMV.

KEYWORDS

Cytomegalovirus, vaccine, immunity, gene transduction, dendritic cells.

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