Synthetic consensus HIV-1 DNA induces potent cellular immune responses and synthesis of granzyme B, perforin in HIV infected individuals.

This study evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of PENNVAX-B in 12 HIV infected individuals. PENNVAX-B is a combination of three optimized synthetic plasmids encoding for multiclade HIV Gag and Pol and a consensus CladeB Env delivered by electroporation. HIV infected individuals whose virus was effectively suppressed using highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) received PENNVAX-B DNA followed by electroporation with CELLECTRA-5P at study weeks 0, 4, 8, and 16. Local administration site and systemic reactions to PENNVAX-B were recorded after each treatment along with any adverse events. Pain of the treatment procedure was assessed using a Visual Analog Scale. Whole PBMCs were isolated for use in IFN ELISpot and Flow Cytometric assays. PENNVAX-B was generally safe and well tolerated. Overall, the four dose regimen was not associated with any serious adverse events or severe local or systemic reactions. A rise in antigen-specific SFU was detected in the INFγ ELISpot assay in all 12 participants. T cells from 8/12 participants loaded with both granzyme B and perforin in response to HIV antigen, an immune finding characteristic of long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs) and elite controllers (ECs). Thus administration of PENNVAX-B may prove useful adjunctive therapy to ART for treatment and control of HIV infection.