[HIV vaccine: how far along are we?].

Overview

The development of an HIV vaccine has been a major challenge for several decades already. In order to cope with the large diversity and mutation rate of the virus, a vaccine needs to offer extraordinarily broad protection. In recent years, a large number of clinical studies all over the world have been investigating promising new vaccine strategies. Findings of these studies will provide important guidance for further optimisation of vaccine candidates, excipients and vaccination schedules in the near future. Vaccines currently under investigation are stimulating either the development of antibodies against HIV or antiviral T-cell immunity. In order to provide broad and long-lasting protection, an effective vaccine should induce both humoral and cellular responses, which could be achieved with sequential immunisations as well as a combination of several different vaccine strategies.