The Safety and Immunogenicity of the DNA-GTU Vaccine Administered to HIV-infected Patients on ART vs Placebo

CUT\*HIVTHER 001 is a randomised placebo-controlled Phase I/II study aimed at exploring the safety and immunogenicity of two different modes of delivery of a GTU® DNA plasmid vaccine (GTU®-multiHIV B clade) in HIV infected volunteers on antiretroviral therapy (ART): * Transcutaneous (TC) delivery to enhance intramuscular delivery and * Electroporation (EP) enhanced intramuscular delivery Participants will be randomised 1:1:1 to TC:EP:saline for the purposes of analysis. Half the saline group will receive TC saline and half will receive EP saline. 30 HIV infected male and female volunteers aged 18-45 years, who have been on ART for at least 6 months with 2 or more HIV plasma viral load measurements \< 50 copies HIV RNA/ml prior to enrolment. The investigational HIV-1 vaccine GTU®-MultiHIV B clade encodes for a MultiHIV antigen which is a synthetic fusion protein consisting of full-length polypeptides of Rev, Nef, Tat, p17 and p24 and containing more than 20 Th and CTL epitopes of protease, reverse transcriptase (RT) and gp160 regions of the HAN2 HIV-1 B clade. Vaccine is provided in sealed vials at 2mg/ml, and a single 1ml IM injection of 2mg GTU®-MultiHIV DNA IM (into the thigh) is required to deliver a 2mg dose. Individuals in Group 2 will receive a further 0.4mg GTU®-MultiHIV DNA in 0.2ml administered by TC, a novel needle-free method of vaccine delivery.