New insights into pathogenesis point to HIV-1 Tat as a key vaccine target.

ABSTRACT: Despite over 30 years of enormous effort and progress in the field, no preventative and/or therapeutic vaccines against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are available. Here, we briefly summarize the vaccine strategies and vaccine candidates that in recent years advanced to efficacy trials with mostly unsatisfactory results. Next, we discuss a novel and somewhat contrarian approach based on biological and epidemiological evidence, which led us to choose the HIV protein Tat for the development of preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines. Toward this goal, we review here the role of Tat in the virus life cycle as well as experimental and epidemiological evidence supporting its key role in the natural history of HIV infection and comorbidities. We then discuss the preclinical and clinical dev

SUBMITTER: Ensoli B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8363864 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature