Approaches to gene therapy for human immunodeficiency virus infection

Much progress has been made in developing new and more efficient treatments for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, the cause of acquired im munodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). However, the scope of the HIV epidemic and the limitations of existing treatments necessitate the continued developmen t of novel treatment strategies. Gene therapy is one such forward-looking s trategy. Gene therapy approaches for HIV infection include efforts to inter fere with viral replication directly by engineering HIV-resistant cells or indirectly by eliminating infected cells from the body, primarily by elicit ing a therapeutic immune response to destroy HIV-infected cells. Although t he prospect of gene therapy as a routine treatment for HIV infection remain s distant, continuous progress is being made, which should also have implic ations for gene therapy strategies for a variety of other diseases. This ar ticle reviews some of the strategies for investigating the feasibility of g ene transfer for the treatment of HIV infection.