Characterization of humoral and cellular immune responses elicited by a recombinant adenovirus serotype 26 HIV-1 Env vaccine in healthy adults (IPCAVD 001).

BACKGROUND Adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) has been developed as a novel candidate vaccine vector for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and other pathogens. The primary safety and immunogenicity data from the Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development Program (IPCAVD) 001 trial, the first-in-human evaluation of a prototype Ad26 vector-based vaccine expressing clade A HIV-1 Env (Ad26.ENVA.01), are reported concurrently with this article. Here, we characterize in greater detail the humoral and cellular immune responses elicited by Ad26.ENVA.01 in humans. METHODS Samples from the IPCAVD 001 trial were used for humoral and cellular immunogenicity assays. RESULTS We observed a dose-dependent expansion of the magnitude, breadth, and epitopic diversity of Env-specific binding antibody responses elicited by this vaccine. Antibody-dependent cell-mediated phagocytosis, virus inhibition, and degranulation functional activity were also observed. Env-specific cellular immune responses induced by the vaccine included multiple CD8(+) and CD4(+) T-lymphocyte memory subpopulations and cytokine secretion phenotypes, although cellular immune breadth was limited. Baseline vector-specific T-lymphocyte responses were common but did not impair Env-specific immune responses in this study. CONCLUSION Ad26.ENVA.01 elicited a broad diversity of humoral and cellular immune responses in humans. These data support the further clinical development of Ad26 as a candidate vaccine vector. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION NCT00618605.