An Update on the HIV DNA Vaccine Strategy
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Vaccines
Abstract
In 2020, the global prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was
estimated to be 38 million, and a total of 690,000 people died from acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (AIDS)–related complications. Notably, around 12.6 million people living with HIIV/AIDS
did not have access to life-saving treatment. The advent of the highly active antiretroviral therapy
(HAART) in the mid-1990s remarkably enhanced the life expectancy of people living with HIV/AIDS
as a result of improved immune functions. However, HAART has several drawbacks, especially
when it is not used properly, including a high risk for the development of drug resistance, as
well as undesirable side effects such as lipodystrophy and endocrine dysfunctions, which result in
HAART intolerability. HAART is also not curative. Furthermore, new HIV infections continue to
occur globally at a high rate, with an estimated 1.7 million new infections occurring in 2018 alone.
Therefore, there is still an urgent need for an affordable, effective, and readily available preventive
vaccine against HIV/AIDS. Despite this urgent need, however, progress toward an effective HIV
vaccine has been modest over the last four decades. Reasons for this slow progress are mainly
associated with the unique aspects of HIV itself and its ability to rapidly mutate, targeting immune
cells and escape host immune responses. Several approaches to an HIV vaccine have been undertaken.
However, this review will mainly discuss progress made, including the pre-clinical and clinical trials
involving vector-based HIV DNA vaccines and the use of integrating lentiviral vectors in HIV vaccine
development. We concluded by recommending particularly the use of integrase-defective lentiviral
vectors, owing to their safety profiles, as one of the promising vectors in HIV DNA vaccine strategies
both for prophylactic and therapeutic HIV vaccines.
Description
Keywords
lentiviral vectors, DNA vaccines, immunization, HIV, AIDS
Citation
Hokello, J.; Sharma, A.L.; Tyagi, M. An Update on the HIV DNA Vaccine Strategy. Vaccines 2021, 9, 605. https://doi.org/10.3390/ vaccines9060605