DEVELOPMENT OF VACCINES AGAINST PAPILLOMAVIRUSES

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Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide and it is believed that a small number of genital human papillomaviruses play an essential role in the development of these cancers. Development of vaccines to protect from infection or effective in therapy of lesions could greatly reduce morbidity and mortality caused by these viruses. Because of the narrow host range of papillomaviruses, it is not possible to develop a animal model with the human viruses. Our goal is to use cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV) as an animal model to test strategies for protective and therapeutic vaccine development. CRPV, as some of the human viruses, is associated with the development of cancers. The specific aims are: 1) Develop a unique novel system for vaccines based on the used Listeria monocytogenes and test it in the CRPV system. 2) Construct recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing both viral structural genes for optimal maintenance of conformational epitopes and expressing viral protein and IL2 for increased T cell stimulation. 3) Express viral structural proteins with recombinant bacuolovirus or in yeast for subunit vaccine development. 4) Evaluate the possibility to develop a peptide vaccine.