Is there any room for therapeutic vaccination against the HIV-1/AIDS?

Abstract

Any therapeutic vaccination approach against HIV-1 must induce CTL and Th1 cells. But, therapeutic vaccination is more than that. For extensive application of a therapeutic vaccine several questions need to be solved in advance to achieve a global impact. In this commentary some of them are addressed. We analyze the epidemiology, sociology, economy and immunopathology related to the HIV/AIDS disease. Also, important technical issues and real possibilities to overcome at least some of the major limitation of the antiretroviral treatments in the pursuit of an effective vaccine are considered. From the integration of previous analyses some conclusions are drawn. Because it is just a commentary some arguments are not unveiled into their full extension. At the end, we discuss some issues in relation to the development of the vaccine candidate TERAVAC-HIV-1 as a case study.