We used a replication-incompetent, single-cycle, alphavirus replicon vector system to produce virus-like replicon particles (VRP) expressing the extracellular domain of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) glycoprotein B or a pp65/IE1 fusion protein. Efficient production methods were scaled to produce pilot lots and clinical lots of each alphavirus replicon vaccine component. The vaccine induced high-ti...

Blood samples were collected from 100 pediatric AIDS patients for the detection of CMV in pp65-bearing leukocytes (PBLs) by immunoperoxidase staining (IP) and PCR. IgM antibody assay was performed to determine the correlation of antigen and antibody. IP and PCR can be used as methods for the early detection of CMV (prior to the presence of IgM antibody). The sensitivity and specificity of IP we...

One of the more controversial and debatable issues presently confronting clinical virologists and infectious disease specialists is the application of the cytomegalovirus antigenemia (CMV-Ag) assay (pp65 antigenemia assay) as a marker and predictor of CMV disease. For example, recent reports have shown the CMV-Ag assay to be more accurate than conventional DNA PCR or the more recent nucleic aci...

Congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is the major cause of birth defects and a precise definition of the HCMV-specific T-cell response in primary infection may help define reliable correlates of immune protection during pregnancy. In this study, a high throughput method was used to define the frequency of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells specific for four HCMV proteins in the naïve compartmen...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV*), the first reported transplantassociated opportunistic virus (1), has remained the most frequent single cause or co-cause ofinfections throughout the ensuing three decades (2). Because prophylactic drug and hyperimmune globulin therapy has not been effective in these CMV-infected patients (2-4), Rubin (5) suggested withholding treatment until the phase of rapid viral repl...