Capturing public interest toward new tools for controlling human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection exploiting data from Google Trends

Human immunodeficiency virus vaccination and pre-exposure prophylaxis represent two different emerging preventive tools. Google Trends was used to assess the public interest toward these tools in terms of digital activities. Worldwide web searches concerning the human immunodeficiency virus vaccine represented 0.34 percent, 0.03 percent, and 46.97 percent of human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome treatment–related Google Trends queries, respectively. Concerning temporal trends, digital activities were shown to increase from 0 percent as of 1 January 2004 percent to 46 percent as of 8 October 2017 with two spikes observed in May and July 2012, coinciding with the US Food and Drug Administration approval. Bursts in search number and volume were recorded as human immunodeficiency virus vaccine trials emerged. This search topic has decreased in the past decade in parallel to the increase in Truvada-related topics. Concentrated searches were noticed among African countries with high human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome prevalence. Stakeholders should take advantage of public interest especially in preventive medicine in high disease burden countries.

Strong, but Age-Dependent, Protection Elicited by a Deoxyribonucleic Acid/Modified Vaccinia Ankara Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Vaccine

Background. In this study, we analyzed the protective efficacy of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) macaque 239 (SIVmac239) analogue of the clinically tested GOVX-B11 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)/modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) human immunodeficiency virus vaccine. Methods. The tested vaccine used a DNA immunogen mutated to mimic the human vaccine and a regimen with DNA deliveries at weeks 0 and 8 and MVA deliveries at weeks 16 and 32. Twelve weekly rectal challenges with 0.3 animal infectious doses of SIV sootey mangabey E660 (SIVsmE660) were administered starting at 6 months after the last immunization. Results. Over the first 6 rectal exposures to SIVsmE660, <10-year-old tripartite motif-containing protein 5 (TRIM5)α-permissive rhesus macaques showed an 80% reduction in per-exposure risk of infection as opposed to a 46% reduction in animals over 10 years old; and, over the 12 challenges, they showed a 72% as opposed to a 10% reduction. Analyses of elicited immune responses suggested that higher antibody responses in the younger animals had played a role in protection. Conclusions. The simian analogue of the GOVX-B11 HIV provided strong protection against repeated rectal challenges in young adult macaques.