Forty years on: how close is an HIV vaccine?

Abstract

Forty years has passed since the first cases of an illness subsequently identified as AIDS were reported, yet despite extensive research and many clinical trials, an HIV vaccine is still not available. However, there is now renewed optimism that a vaccine with broad activity against several HIV variants is possible.

Conserved multiepitope vaccine constructs: A potent HIV-1 therapeutic vaccine in clinical trials

“…Prophylactic vaccines are the most promising solution to stop the HIV-1 pandemic, but they have shown repeated failures in phases II and III human clinical trials. 6 , 7 Up to now, the most effective prophylactic vaccine is RV144 (ALVAC—HIV-1 (vCP1521) viral vector prime/AIDSVAX B/E gp120 protein boost) achieved to phase III clinical trial with 31% efficacy and limited durability. 8 Biological obstacles to HIV-1 vaccine development originate from virus characteristics such as high mutation and recombination rate during viral replication, genetic variability and cell-associated spreading of the virus.…”

Functional Profile of CD8+ T-Cells in Response to HLA-A*02:01-Restricted Mutated Epitopes Derived from the Gag Protein of Circulating HIV-1 Strains from Medellín, Colombia

“…HIV-1/AIDS still represents one of the most significant health issues worldwide ( 1 ). Since the beginning of the pandemic, approximately four decades ago, no treatment to eradicate the virus or an effective prophylactic vaccine has been developed ( 2 ). Despite the success of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) in reducing AIDS-associated deaths and changed the prospects of HIV/AIDS disease, this therapy has pitfalls such, the non-adherence of the patients, poor tolerability, drug resistance, and drug interactions ( 3 ), but also the continuous HIV replication in compartments and persistence of viral reservoirs ( 4 ).…”