An immunology-based approach to the design of an HIV-1 preventative vaccine

This article reviews an approach to vaccine design based on identifying the fine specificity of immune responses to HIV-1. A preventative vaccine is o f paramount importance for South Africa, in order to reduce the current hig h rates of HIV-1 transmission. Rather than taking an empirical approach to vaccine design, a more thoughtful strategy based on immune responses from a variety of infected and uninfected individuals will guide the design of ap propriate immunogens. Such an approach will ensure that a vaccine evokes su itable cellular and humoral antibody responses and that regions of the HIV- 1 genome that are not relevant for eliciting immunity can be deleted from t he vaccine construct. The safety of such a vaccine may be ensured because t he potential for spurious formation of toxic or damaging proteins is reduce d. Furthermore, knowledge of regions of the HIV-1 virus that evoke specific immunity will facilitate precise assessment of vaccine immunogenicity.