Students Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Profound early control of highly pathogenic SIV by an effector memory T-cell vaccine is an article written by Scot et al. in the urge to control the pathogenicity of the SIV by the application of the memory T-cells to the specific sites that are responsible for the body immune response, the CD4+ and CD8+ cells. The research is important as it gives a direction as well as hopes that may lead to the development of a vaccine that can control the pathogenicity of the SIV. The author states that the lentiviruses, the Simian Immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are caused by the immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The two lentiviruses can effectively evade the host’s immune system, and when they get established in the host’s body, the infections caused by the two viruses become hard to control by the immunological mechanisms.

However, there is hope of immunological control as the viruses become vulnerable to the immune control just before they begin the viral dissemination and massive replication in their initial establishment of the infection during the first few days just after the mucosal exposure. The article reports that the simian immunodeficiency virus vaccine that includes the rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) vectors establishes an indefinitely persistent, high-frequency SIV-effector memory T-cells responses at the potential sites of replication for the simian immunodeficiency virus in the rhesus macaques. The T- cells can stringently control the highly pathogenic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVMAC239) infection early before the virus challenge to the mucosa.

Thirteen of the twenty-four rhesus macaques that receives either the RhCMV vectors alone or a combination of the RhCMV vectors followed by the adenovirus 5 indicated early signs of complete control of the simian immunodeficiency virus that is the undetectable plasma virus. In twelve of the thirteen rhesus macaques that showed entire control of the SIV, there was a long-term protection of the animals for a period that was more than or equal to one year. The protection of the animals was characterized by occasional blips of the plasma viraemia that ultimately waned. Another characteristic is that the predominantly undetectable cell-associated viral load in the blood and the lymph nodes mononuclear cells. The third characteristic is that there was no depletion of the effector-site CD4+ memory of the T-cells and no induction or boosting of the simian immunodeficiency virus Env-specific antibodies. The last characteristic is that, the induction followed by the loss of the T-cells to the simian immunodeficiency virus protein that is not included in the RhCMV vectors. The protection of the animal correlated with the magnitude of the peak simian immunodeficiency virus-specific CD8+ T-cells responses in the vaccine phase and this occurred without anamnestic T-cell responses.

It is worth noting that the long-term RhCMV vector associated with the SIV control was insensitive to either CD4+ or the CD8+ lymphocytes depletion. Besides, at the necropsy, the cells associated with the simian immunodeficiency virus was occasionally quantifiable at the limit of the final viral clearance. Therefore, the persistent vectors such as the CMV and their associated TEM responses would significantly contribute to the development of an effective and efficacious vaccine that is aimed to control the development of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS).

Since there are some lights regarding the availability of a vaccine that is targeted to control the pathogenicity of the SIV and HIV viruses after infection, there is a need for more experiments in the same field. The experiments should be directed towards the development of a vaccine that at this time won’t target the infectious agent after it has begun to cause harm to the host’s body but towards the development of a vaccine that aims to block the infection by the infectious agent. The blockage can be achieved through the same mechanism of memory T-cells in the immune cells such as the CD4+ and the CD8+ cells. As in the previous experiment, the immune cells showed no signs of depletion. There is a higher chance that this experiment will work out well and lead to the development of a blocking vaccine against the SIV and AIDS. The reason as to why I chose the experiment is because it will help reduce the number of infections and this will lead to a more healthy population.