Evaluating therapeutic vaccines in patients infected with HIV

Long-term survival of HIV infection can mean decades of treatment for a patient, with major side effects and costs that limit their efficacy and accessibility. Although antiretroviral therapy remains the only standard of care, alternative therapeutic strategies must be found to ensure efficient and safe clinical management of the disease in the long term. Therapeutic immunisation against HIV might be a significant approach to enhancing immune control of the virus and limiting disease progression and thus the requirement for medication. Several anti-HIV vaccines are currently being evaluated in attempts to prolong periods of treatment interruption in HIV patients. The design and end-points of clinical trials, and the clinical settings in which these new strategies should be evaluated and will be of benefit, have yet to be defined and are the focus of this review.