HIV vaccines: current status worldwide and in Africa.
Since HIV-1 was identified, development of a preventive vaccine has been a major goal. Significant progress toward that goal has been made by 2010. In macaques, a vigorous T effector cell response has protected some animals from disease caused by simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Broadly, neutralizing human anti-HIV antibodies have been isolated and their structures, and targets are rapidly being elucidated. For the first time an AIDS vaccine has shown modest protective efficacy in a human clinical trial. To reach the final goal, there is a need for a coordinated global effort, including a range of approaches including novel high-throughput screening techniques, X-ray crystallography, and monoclonal antibody isolation, analysis of T cell responses and their impact on disease progression, human epidemiology, as well as targeted studies in nonhuman primates. African research teams as well as cohorts of healthy volunteers and HIV-infected individuals have contributed to HIV vaccine research and development in many important ways. It is essential that this work continue to speed the development and deployment of a vaccine suitable for African populations.
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, New York, New York 10038-3901, USA. pfast@iavi.org
Patricia E
PE
Fast
Pontiano
P
Kaleebu
D016915:AIDS Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008251:Macaca; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology
D016915:AIDS Vaccines