Volume 77, no. 24, p. 13248-13256, 2003: We have uncovered the following errors by reexamining the study. (i) Monkeys used for the study had been previously immunized with Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), which might modify the results by acting as an adjuvant. (ii) Since the immunization of the vector control in the macaque study was inadequate, viral loads and CD4-positive cell loss by the vector control group might not be correct in Fig. 6.
Since we have already confirmed the efficacy of the recombinant vaccinia virus DIs-based vaccine in mice (K. Someya, K.-Q. Xin, K. Matsuo, K. Okuda, N. Yamamoto, and M. Honda, J. Virol. 78:9842-9853, 2004) and monkeys (K. Someya et al., unpublished data), such errors may not necessarily invalidate the major conclusions of the paper. However, we would like to retract the paper cited above and suspend judgment about its conclusions until they are subjected to further study, now in progress.