Two Double‐Blinded, Randomized, Comparative Trials of 4 Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV‐1) Envelope Vaccines in HIV‐1–Infected Individuals across a Spectrum of Disease Severity: AIDS Clinical Trials Groups 209 and 214

The potential role of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-specific immune responses in controlling viral replication in vivo has stimulated interest in enhancing virus-specific immunity by vaccinating infected individuals with HIV-1 or its components. These studies were undertaken to define patient populations most likely to respond to vaccination, with the induction of novel HIV-1-specific cellular immune responses, and to compare the safety and immunogenicity of several candidate recombinant HIV-1 envelope vaccines and adjuvants. New lymphoproliferative responses (LPRs) developed in <30% of vaccine recipients. LPRs were elicited primarily in study participants with a CD4 cell count >350 cells/mm(3) and were usually strain restricted. Responders tended to be more likely than nonresponders to have an undetectable level of HIV-1 RNA at baseline (P=.067). Induction of new cellular immune responses by HIV-1 envelope vaccines is a function of the immunologic stage of disease and baseline plasma HIV-1 RNA level and exhibits considerable vaccine strain specificity.