Development of a New HIV Vaccine

HIV-1 presents several challenges to vaccine design, including: 1) high mutation rates resulting in tremendous diversity of virus envelope, the target of neutralizing antibody, such that antibody elicited to one envelope may not protect from virus with a distinct envelope; 2) envelope from infected persons differs from envelopes obtained from T-cell line cultures, the usual source of envelope for vaccines; and 3) envelope glycoprotein exists as oligomers on the virion surface, not as the monomers used in previous vaccines. This study will test a new vaccine that has been designed to meet these challenges by delivering diverse, patient-derived, oligomeric envelopes to induce multiple type-specific responses capable of recognizing native envelope on natural variants. The vaccine vector used in this vaccine trial is recombinant vaccinia virus based on the NYCDH vaccinia isolate. Participants in this study will receive the PolyEnv1 HIV vaccine and will be followed for one year. Laboratory tests will be performed at 10 study visits to monitor the participants' immunologic response and assess the safety of the vaccine. Patients will also have numerous HIV tests throughout the study period.