Immunologic Control of HIV-1: What Have We Learned and Can We Induce It?

Purpose Of Review: A large amount of data now exists on the virus-specific immune response associated with spontaneous or induced immunologic control of lentiviruses. This review focuses on how the current understanding of HIV-specific immunity might be leveraged into induction of immunologic control and what further research is needed to accomplish this goal.

Recent Findings: During chronic infection, the function most robustly associated with immunologic control of HIV-1 is CD8 T cell cytotoxic capacity. This function has proven difficult to restore in HIV-specific CD8 T cells of chronically infected progressors in vitro and in vivo. However, progress has been made in inducing an effective CD8 T cell response prior to lentiviral infection in the macaque model and during acute lentiviral infection in non-human primates. Further study will likely accelerate the ability to induce an effective CD8 T cell response as part of prophylactic or therapeutic strategies.