Lederle-Praxis Biologicals

To determine the safety of immunization with HIV-1 C4-V3 polyvalent peptide vaccine in HIV-infected persons. To determine the proportion of study participants immunized who develop new specificities or increased levels of neutralizing and other antibody responses, T-cell proliferative responses, and Class I restricted cytotoxic T-lymphocyte ( CTL ) responses.
HIV-1 C4-V3 polyvalent peptide vaccine contains amino acid sequences for selected epitopes from four of the most common HIV isolates in the United States and Europe, predicted to represent about 50-90 percent of the HIV isolates in the United States. It includes epitopes that generate potentially salutary immune responses and deletes epitopes that generate immune responses which might contribute to further immunopathogenesis.

To assess whether HIV-infected infants who receive a heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine have more local reactions at the site of injection and systemic reactions than placebo subjects. To assess whether this vaccine is more immunogenic than placebo following the third vaccination.
Children with HIV infection are at increased risk for invasive pneumococcal infection, particularly bacteremia. A large proportion of pneumococcal disease is caused by a limited number of serotypes. The maximum number of pneumococcal serotypes that can be included in a new conjugate vaccine is felt to be limited by the amount of carrier protein. A heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine has been developed that consists of pneumococcal capsular saccharides from serotypes 4, 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19F, and 23F bound to a diphtheria toxin mutant carrier protein.