Oral Mucosal Vaccination against HIV Infection (R01)

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Purpose. This FOA issued by the NIDCR, NIH, solicits R01 applications that focus on harnessing oral mucosal and innate immunity to develop prophylactic HIV vaccines delivered through the oral mucosa. Specifically, the NIDCR is seeking applications that will address studies on the: 1) mechanisms linking oral mucosal and innate immunity with systemic adaptive immunity; 2) development of HIV vaccine antigens in oral expression vectors that are stable in the oral cavity and have the ability to trigger anti-HIV protective immunity; 3) mechanisms of HIV infection of target cells in the oral cavity (e.g., epithelial cells and immune cells) and effects of oral dendritic (DC),and natural killer (NK) cell subset changes during disease progression or upon oral mucosal HIV vaccination; 4) DC-NK cells cross-talk in the oral cavity and relationship to systemic adaptive immunity upon oral mucosal HIV vaccination; 5) similarities and differences between DC-NK cells cross-talk in the oral mucosal site compared with other mucosal sites, and 6) characterization of soluble defense molecules produced in oral secretions upon oral mucosal HIV vaccination. This FOA welcomes applications that further develop already characterized target vaccine antigens and formulations and relevant model antigens for oral delivery, target validation and early preclinical evaluation in relevant animal models. This FOA will not support basic vaccine antigen discovery, HIV vaccine clinical trials, projects on enteric vaccines for oral delivery, projects on nasal delivery methods for oral mucosal HIV vaccines, or therapeutic vaccine research. Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) award mechanism. Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. NIDCR intends to commit approximately $2 million in total costs (Direct costs plus Facilities and Administrative costs) in fiscal year 2010 through this announcement to support approximately 4-6 awards. Awards issued under this FOA are contingent upon the availability of funds and the submission of a sufficient number of meritorious applications.

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