Developing broadly reactive HIV-1/AIDS vaccines: a review of polyvalent and centralized HIV-1 vaccines

The development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine requires consideration of the large diversity of viral isolates. In 2005, there were 5 million new cases of HIV infection and over 4 million deaths due to AIDS. An HIV vaccine is needed to prevent the spread of this virus. One of the greatest challenges to developing a preventative HIV vaccine is the diversity of HIV-1 isolates. Env sequences can differ by as much as 35% between isolates from different clades and by as much as 10% within a clade. Two main strategies to address viral diversity for HIV vaccine development are the use of polymeric- or centralized-based immunogens. Polymeric-based vaccines, which have been used for polio and pneumococcus vaccines, use components from a range of viral isolates to increase the breadth of immune recognition. Centralized sequences decrease the sequence diversity by encoding the most common amino acid at each position from a diverse pool of viral isolates. These sequences are derived using the consensus, center-of-the-tree, or ancestral methods. The use of polyvalent- and centralized-based vaccines induce broadly reactive immune responses, however it is unclear whether the use of these sequences will increase protection against diverse HIV-1 infection. This review will summarize the current uses of polyvalent and centralized vaccines to increase immune breadth that may determine future directions for HIV-1 vaccine development.