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Therapeutic immunization for HIV

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Abstract

Vaccines have entered into human clinical trials against infectious diseases and as therapies against cancer. The HIV virus establishes a latent infection at a very early stage and the T cell memory of the infected patient is rapidly destroyed. However, results of immunotherapy after DNA and protein immunization show that vaccine-induced immune responses might be present for a long period of time. Patients subjected to therapeutic immunization appear to do well, and to have a small immunological advantage, which, however, will have to be improved. The vaccine therapy should start early, while adequate reservoirs of appropriate T helper cells are available and still inducible. The DNA vaccines induce a relatively long-lived immunological memory, and gene-based immunization is effective in inducing cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and CD4+ helper cells. Protein vaccines, on the other hand, primarily give T cell help. It thus appears that DNA and protein approaches to HIV immunization complement each other. A surprisingly broad reactivity to peptides from different subtypes of HIV was identified in individuals infected with several subtypes of HIV.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, 171 82, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lindvi Gudmundsdotter, Anna Sjödin, Ann-Charlotte Boström & Britta Wahren

  2. Microbiology and Tumorbiology Center, Karolinska Institute, 171 82, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ann-Charlotte Boström & Britta Wahren

  3. Department of Dermatovenereology, Karolinska University Hospital at South Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Bo Hejdeman

  4. Department of Infectious Diseases, Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

    Rebecca Theve-Palm, Annette Alaeus & Knut Lidman

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  1. Lindvi Gudmundsdotter
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  2. Anna Sjödin
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  3. Ann-Charlotte Boström
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Correspondence to Britta Wahren.

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Gudmundsdotter, L., Sjödin, A., Boström, AC. et al. Therapeutic immunization for HIV. Springer Semin Immun 28, 221–230 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-006-0029-0

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