Current status of the development of an AIDS vaccine

It is commonly agreed that the development of a vaccine that would prove effective against infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, would be an important measure toward eliminating the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS. The biology of HIV is complex and very little is known regarding the host immune defenses against viral infection. The virus has evolved mechanisms to evade the immune system which would appear to make traditional vaccine approaches potentially inadequate. However, all of the diverse technologies which have recently been developed in the field of vaccinology have already been applied in large measure to this disease. These techniques include the use of subunits derived from the virus or by recombinant DNA methods, the use of peptides, the use of anti-idiotypes, and the use of various attenuated viruses which can be utilized as gene carriers. This review summarizes the status of these approaches in an attempt to give a critical overview of the field as it presently exists.