CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are critical for protection against intracellular pathogens but often have been difficult to induce by subunit vaccines in animals. DNA vaccines elicit protective CD8+ T cell responses. Malaria-naïve volunteers who were vaccinated with plasmid DNA encoding a malaria protein developed antigen-specific, genetically restricted, CD8+ T cell-dependent CTLs. Responses were directed against all 10 peptides tested and were restricted by six human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles. This first demonstration in healthy naïve humans of the induction of CD8+ CTLs by DNA vaccines, including CTLs that were restricted by multiple HLA alleles in the same individual, provides a foundation for further human testing of this potentially revolutionary vaccine technology.

In animals, immunomodulatory dendritic cells (DCs) exposed to autoantigen can suppress experimental arthritis in an antigen-specific manner. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), disease-specific anti-citrullinated peptide autoantibodies (ACPA or anti-CCP) are found in the serum of about 70% of RA patients and are strongly associated with HLA-DRB1 risk alleles. This study aimed to explore the safety and biological and clinical effects of autologous DCs modified with a nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) inhibitor exposed to four citrullinated peptide antigens, designated "Rheumavax," in a single-center, open-labeled, first-in-human phase 1 trial. Rheumavax was administered once intradermally at two progressive dose levels to 18 human leukocyte antigen (HLA) risk genotype-positive RA patients with citrullinated peptide-specific autoimmunity. Sixteen RA patients served as controls. Rheumavax was well tolerated: adverse events were grade 1 (of 4) severity. At 1 month after treatment, we observed a reduction in effector T cells and an increased ratio of regulatory to effector T cells; a reduction in serum interleukin-15 (IL-15), IL-29, CX3CL1, and CXCL11; and reduced T cell IL-6 responses to vimentin(447-455)-Cit450 relative to controls. Rheumavax did not induce disease flares in patients recruited with minimal disease activity, and DAS28 decreased within 1 month in Rheumavax-treated patients with active disease. This exploratory study demonstrates safety and biological activity of a single intradermal injection of autologous modified DCs exposed to citrullinated peptides, and provides rationale for further studies to assess clinical efficacy and antigen-specific effects of autoantigen immunomodulatory therapy in RA.