pHIS-HIV-AE (DNA vaccine) prime(Kirby Institute)

The development of a safe and effective vaccine for HIV is the subject of intensive world-wide research. Various approaches are being investigated in monkey models and humans. This is a randomized, double-blind trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a candidate preventative human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine strategy in 24 healthy adult Thai volunteers with no identifiable risk behaviour for HIV-1 infection. Volunteers will receive three "priming" vaccinations at weeks 0, 4 and 8 (pHIS-HIV-AE, a DNA vector delivering AE clade HIV-1 genes). This will be followed at week 12 by single "boost" vaccination (rFPV-HIV-AE, non-replicating, recombinant fowlpox virus vector delivering the same HIV-1 genes). Safety and immunological monitoring will continue to 52 weeks