Safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of repeated doses of dermavir, a candidate therapeutic HIV vaccine, in HIV-infected patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy: results of the ACTG 5176 trial.

Background HIV-specific cellular immune responses are associated with control of viremia and delayed disease progression. An effective therapeutic vaccine could mimic these effects and reduce the need for continued antiretroviral therapy. DermaVir, a topically administered pDNA-nanomedicine expressing HIV (CladeB) virus-like particles consisting of 15 antigens, induces predominantly central memory T-cell responses.