Part F - AIDS Vaccines: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Although, the historically successful approaches to vaccine design have proven to be of limited utility in search for an effective Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) vaccine, a number of novel vaccine strategies that address the unique biology of this virus appear to be promising. HIV represents a genetically diverse population of viruses. The HIVs responsible for causing Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus (AIDS) in most of the world are referred to as HIV-1. The propensity of HIV to mutate poses another obstacle for the successful development of an AIDS vaccine. The various routes of HIV transmission, and how the virus is seen by the immune system, also have important implications for AIDS vaccine development. HIV can be transmitted by sexual contact and by contaminated blood products. Therefore, a successful HIV vaccine must generate effective immunity in the anatomic regions that first come into contact with the virus during sexual exposure as well as effective immunity in the bloodstream. A growing awareness of the biologic obstacles that exist for creating an effective HIV vaccine had long ago created a sense of pessimism among many HIV researchers. However, observations in nonhuman primate studies have provided hope that the immunity generated by an HIV vaccine may be capable of attenuating clinical disease, and slowing HIV transmission, even if infection by HIV is not prevented.