HIV/AIDS vaccines: 2007

Development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine has been slow because classical approaches to vaccine development have not yielded a vaccine. Encouragingly, new approaches using recombinant viral vectors, DNA vaccines, and combinations of different vectors in heterologous prime/boost regimens are yielding vaccines capable of controlling virulent immunodeficiency virus challenges in non-human primate models. These new vaccines elicit T cells capable of recognizing and killing virus-infected cells. Brief synopses are given for six vaccines currently advancing in human trials.