Journal Article

In Vivo Electroporation Enhances the Immunogenicity of an HIV-1 DNA Vaccine Candidate in Healthy Volunteers

Schmidt, Claudia, Dally, Len, Smith, Carol, Hannaman, Drew, Cheeseman, Hannah, Caskey, Marina, Kopycinski, Jakub T., Hurley, Arlene, Fast, Patricia, Gardiner, David F., Andersen, Johanne, Bernard, Robert, Huang, Yaoxing, Clark, Lorna, Vittorino, Roselle, Tarragona-Fiol, Tony, Gill, Dilbinder K., Cox, Josephine H., Park, Harriet H., Gilmour, Jill, Vasan, Sandhya, Ho, David D., Dugin, Daniel P., Schlesinger, Sarah J., Boente-Carrera, Mar

2011

Overview

DNA-based vaccines have been safe but weakly immunogenic in humans to date. We sought to determine the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of ADVAX, a multigenic HIV-1 DNA vaccine candidate, injected intramuscularly by in vivo electroporation (EP) in a Phase-1, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial in healthy volunteers. Eight volunteers each received 0.2 mg, 1 mg, or 4 mg ADVAX or saline placebo via EP, or 4 mg ADVAX via standard intramuscular injection at weeks 0 and 8. A third vaccination was administered to eleven volunteers at week 36. EP was safe, well-tolerated and considered acceptable for a prophylactic vaccine. EP delivery of ADVAX increased the magnitude of HIV-1-specific cell mediated immunity by up to 70-fold over IM injection, as measured by gamma interferon ELISpot. The number of antigens to which the response was detected improved with EP and increasing dosage. Intracellular cytokine staining analysis of ELISpot responders revealed both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses, with co-secretion of multiple cytokines. This is the first demonstration in healthy volunteers that EP is safe, tolerable, and effective in improving the magnitude, breadth and durability of cellular immune responses to a DNA vaccine candidate. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00545987.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome / Adenoviruses / Adolescent / Adult / AIDS / AIDS vaccines / AIDS Vaccines - administration & dosage / AIDS Vaccines - pharmacology / Analysis / Animals / Antigens / B cells / Biological response modifiers / Biology / CD4 antigen / CD8 antigen / Cytokines / Cytokines - secretion / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA vaccines / Double-Blind Method / Drug delivery systems / Durability / Electroporation / Electroporation - methods / Electroporation - standards / Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay / Female / HIV / HIV-1 - immunology / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Immune response / Immune response (cell-mediated) / Immune system / Immunity / Immunity, Cellular - drug effects / Immunogenicity / Immunology / Injection / Injections, Intramuscular / Interferon / Interferon gamma / Laboratories / Lymphocytes T / Male / Medicine / Middle Aged / Prostate cancer / T cells / T-Lymphocytes - immunology / Vaccination / Vaccines / Vaccines, DNA - administration & dosage / Vaccines, DNA - pharmacology / Vectors (Biology) / Young Adult / γ-Interferon