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Scientific Updates

Global HIV Vaccine
IIn November of 2002, the NIAID Vaccine Research Center launched a Phase I clinical study of a novel DNA vaccine directed at the three most globally important HIV subtypes, or clades. The vaccine, developed by the VRC, incorporates HIV genetic material from clades A, B and C, which cause about 90 percent of all HIV infections around the world. This is the first multigene, multiclade HIV vaccine to enter human trials and marks an important milestone in the search for a single vaccine that targets U.S. subtypes of HIV as well as clades causing the global epidemic. The first phase of the trial, for which a total of 50 healthy, HIV-negative volunteers have been enrolled, is being conducted by the VRC at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and is designed to determine the vaccine's safety at 3 dose levels. VRC scientists are also evaluating the vaccine for induction of immune responses in the vaccinees. A larger clinical trial to further evaluate safety, immune response and schedule is being conducted through the NIAID, Division of AIDS (DAIDS), HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) at several domestic sites, and a Phase I clinical trial with 30 healthy volunteers will also be carried out in Uganda as a collaboration between the Makerere University-Walter Reed Project (MUWRP), DAIDS and the VRC. The DAIDS' Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (AACTG) is also conducting a Phase I clinical trial of this vaccine in HIV-infected volunteers.

The VRC has recently initiated a Phase I clinical trial of a novel adenoviral HIV multiclade vaccine. The VRC eventually plans to combine DNA and adenoviral vector technologies into a prime-boost strategy for HIV vaccine development.