HIV Vaccines Design and Development

Abstract

ConclusionDespite the fact that many technologies have been adopted for HIV vaccine design, and many candidate HIV vaccines have entered clinical trials, the prospect of having an efficacious HIV vaccine available in the near future remains uncertain. A lack of knowledge about protective immunity has hindered HIV vaccine development. This obstacle is to some extent offset by the knowledge researchers in the field have gained about HIV diversity, the structure of some key HIV proteins, the events surrounding HIV entry into its target cells, and host responses to HIV antigens. Even though many of these scientific gains have been, and will continue to be translated into HIV vaccine designs, it should be recognized that only through clinical trials will it be possible to evaluate the effectiveness an intended immune response that is elicited by a candidate vaccine. HIV vaccine development needs to be an empirical process, involving repeated rounds of clinical testing of a large array of candidate HIV vaccines. An efficacious HIV vaccine developed from such a process is our best hope of arresting the growing AIDS epidemic both in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions of the world.