Funding: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Duration: 2022 - 2025

HIV has so far defied all attempts to develop an effective vaccine against it. Nine efficacy trials testing several vaccine candidates have been conducted in the last 25 years, with only one of them resulting in very modest, insufficient protection. One trial, PrEPVacc is still ongoing.

Yet, in the 40 years since HIV’s disovery, a lot has been learned about the virus and the reaction of the human immune system, as well as the means how HIV escapes the immune response.

In the HIVacToGC project we aim to facilitate elicitation of the proper immune response by (1) presenting the HIV envelope protein in the form of engineered, state-of-the-art antigens on particulate carries made of DNA origami, to resemble a virus-like shape (DNA-origami nanoparticles = DONPs), (2) that additionally are formulated to undergo release over time, and (3) are designed to get targeted to germinal centers of lymph nodes, which are the anatomical sites where high-quality antibody responses are developed.

Our primary goal is to provide a pre-clinically validated pharmaceutical vaccine formulation and targeting strategy (technology readiness level 5 [TRL-5]), with the potential to protect from infection (prophylactic setting) and/or control virus replication when used as cART adjunct.

Reasons for the failure of Env immunogen formulations used so far to induce neutralization breadth are manifold, and include inefficient targeting of Env-immunogens to lymph nodes (LNs) and lack of engagement of germline B cell receptors (gl-BCRs) lateron giving rise to broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) after antibody affinity maturation. Those gl-BCRs are expressed on naïve B cells located in the B cell areas of lymph nodes. Thus, a key requirement toward a proper bnAb-response is efficient delivery and targeting of high-quality Env immunogens into LNs to initiate germinal center reactions and drive B cell maturation

Project partners:
Team of Prof. Wagner, Molecular Microbiology (Virology), Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene – Coordinator
Institute of Pharmacy of the University of Regensburg (Prof. Dr. Breunig, Prof. Dr. Göpferich)
Institute of Biomolecular Nanotechnology of the TU Munich (Prof. Dr. Dietz)
Helmholtz Center Munich (Prof. Dr. Ertürk)
2bind GmbH
tilibit GmbH

Further information:
HIVacToGC Project site