Augmentation of adaptive immunity via HIV therapeutic vaccination may be a key component of curative strategies. Adoptive dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapies may prove useful in enhancing the success of these approaches by circumventing certain defects in DC function during HIV infection. Thus far, DC immunotherapies that utilize autologous, inactivated virus as an immunogen have provided the most promising results however, are beset with practical constraints. Consequently, alternative forms of immunogens are under investigation, with an emphasis on RNA-based approaches. Here we review the data from DC immunotherapy trials for HIV infection and discuss challenges and future directions in the field.
Keywords: dendritic cell; human immunodeficiency virus; immunotherapy; therapeutic vaccine.