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This article is part of the supplement: Frontiers of Retrovirology: Complex retroviruses, retroelements and their hosts

Open Access Invited speaker presentation

Toward an HIV preventive vaccine: problems and prospects

Robert C Gallo

  • Correspondence: Robert C Gallo

Author Affiliations

Institute of Human Virology of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, MD, USA

Retrovirology 2009, 6(Suppl 2):I3 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-6-S2-I3

Published: 24 September 2009

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

The special challenge for a successful HIV vaccine is due to HIV DNA integration, HIV variation, and its early harm to the immune system. Though easy to describe, the challenge is uniquely difficult compared to past successful vaccines. However, most if not all current and past vaccine candidates have not taken these features of HIV into account. What is needed and has been needed for over two decades are: (1) far more availability of primates and to a broader number of scientists; (2) an immune response which is sustained; (3) an immune response which is broad and results in sterilizing immunity or close to sterilizing immunity. The key, of course, is finding the right immunogen.