HIV vaccine research: the challenge and the way forward

Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (hiv/aids) is a worldwide epidemic,with over 35 million people infected currently. therefore,the development of a safe and effective hiv-1 vaccine is on top of the global health priority. in the past few years,there have been many promising advances in the prevention of hiv/aids,among which the rv144 thai trial has been encouraging and suggests optimization of the current vaccine strategies or search for novel strategies. here we reviewed the brief history of hiv-1 vaccine,analyzed key challenges existing now,and illustrated future research priority/directions for a therapeutic or prophylactic hiv-1 vaccine,with the hope of accelerating the speed of vaccine development. we believe that an effective hiv-1 vaccine,together with other prevention approaches,will bring an end to this epidemic in the near future. © 2015 hai-bo wang et al.