The Evolution of Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy against HIV-1 Infection: Improvements and Outlook

Figure 3

Summary of strategies currently being investigated for HIV-1 treatment. The design of a long-term HIV-1 treatment is generally focused on four approaches; reversing latency, inhibiting T-cell exhaustion markers, inhibiting viral protein function, and enhancing HIV-1 antigen recognition and immune regulation. Dendritic cell immunotherapy in the form of DC vaccines allows for a more unique approach to treating HIV-1 infection by specifically inducing better recognition by and activation of CTLs. Other therapies for HIV-1 infection can be combined to compensate for shortcomings of a single treatment option to provide optimal control of HIV-1 disease progression, viral resistance, and the spread of infection.