HIV-1 Vaccine Development After STEP

Despite more than 25 years of concerted worldwide research, the development of a safe and effective HIV-1 vaccine remains elusive. Prototype antibody-based and T cell–based HIV-1 vaccines have failed to show efficacy in clinical trials to date. Next-generation HIV-1 vaccine candidates are in various stages of preclinical and clinical development, but key scientific obstacles pose major challenges for the field. Critical hurdles include the enormous global diversity of the virus and the challenges associated with generating broadly reactive neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses. We review the current state of the HIV-1 vaccine field and outline strategies that are being explored to overcome these roadblocks.