Safety and immune response data were presented from the first of several ongoing phase I clinical trials involving the HIV vaccine candidate at a Keystone Symposium in Alberta, Canada.
Study results indicated that the vaccine was generally well-tolerated in 36 healthy adult volunteers and produced both antibody and cellular immune responses to the three different HIV antigens in the vaccine.
The vaccine is the first of its kind to use an adenovector (gene carrier) to deliver genes from all three of the major subtypes, or clades, of HIV causing the global AIDS pandemic, and responses were detected to each of those subtypes.
The Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is also testing the vaccine delivered as a booster to a DNA vaccine to assess safety and help determine whether the vaccine, used as a booster, can provide a stronger immune response to HIV than DNA vaccine alone.