Norman L. Letvin, M.D.

Professor of Medicine

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Research East, Room 113
330 Brookline Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617-667-2766
Fax: 617-667-8210
e-mail:nletvin@bidmc.harvard.edu
12 postdoctoral fellows, 5 graduate students

The laboratory studies T lymphocyte responses to HIV in the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) monkey model for AIDS. The role of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in containing the spread of HIV and SIV is explored. The interactions of these virus-specific T cells and the AIDS virus are studied at a molecular level and the implications of this immune response on virus variation are examined. Novel approaches for the vaccine elicitation of SIV- and HIV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses are being developed.

REFERENCES:

Cayabyab MJ, Korioth-Schmitz B, Sun Y, Carville A, Balachandran H, Miura A, Carlson KR, Buzby AP, Haynes BF, Jacobs WR, Letvin NL. Recombinant Mycobacterium bovis BCG prime-recombinant adenovirus boost vaccination in rhesus monkeys elicits robust polyfunctional simian immunodeficiency virus-specific T-cell responses. J Virol. 2009; 83: 5505-13.

Yeh WW, Jaru-Ampornpan P, Nevidomskyte D, Asmal M, Rao SS, Buzby AP, Montefiori DC, Korber BT, Letvin NL. Partial protection of Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected rhesus monkeys against superinfection with a heterologous SIV isolate.

J Virol. 2009; 83: 2686-96.

Geiben-Lynn R, Greenland JR, Frimpong-Boateng K, van Rooijen N, Hovav AH, Letvin NL. CD4+ T lymphocytes mediate in vivo clearance of plasmid DNA vaccine antigen expression and potentiate CD8+ T-cell immune responses. Blood. 2008 ; 112:4585-90.

Permar SR, Kang HH, Carville A, Mansfield KG, Gelman RS, Rao SS, Whitney JB, Letvin NL. Potent simian immunodeficiency virus-specific cellular immune responses in the breast milk of simian immunodeficiency virus-infected, lactating rhesus monkeys.

J Immunol. 2008 ;181:3643-50.

Santra S, Korber BT, Muldoon M, Barouch DH, Nabel GJ, Gao F, Hahn BH, Haynes BF,LetvinNL. A centralized gene-based HIV-1 vaccine elicits broad cross-clade cellular immune responses in rhesus monkeys. Proc NatlAcad Sci U S A. 2008 Jul 29:105.

Sun Y, Santra S, Schmitz JE, Roederer M, Letvin NL. Magnitude and quality of vaccine-elicited T-cell responses in the control of immunodeficiency virus replication in rhesus monkeys. J Virol. 2008 ;82:8812-9.

Choi EI, Reimann KA, Letvin NL. In vivo natural killer cell depletion during primary simian immunodeficiency virus infectionin rhesus monkeys.J Virol. 2008 ;82:6758-61.