HIV: characteristics, current status of infection and a third-generation m RNA vaccine approach as a promising alternative to traditional vaccines

ABSTRACT

The infections by viruses are a great threat to our immunity but an array of powerful vaccines have successfully protected mankind from the attack of many of them. HIV is a tough enemy of the human body as it eludes the immune system by various mechanisms. It attacks immune cells causing a disease that gradually progresses to AIDS in some infections. Despite the success of ART, which has converted its infection into a manageable chronic condition, it is a major global health problem as 37.7 million people worldwide are HIV infected. ART is a lifelong treatment where a variety of drug options are designed to replace its resistant forms. Vaccines can protect from the stigmatized disease of HIV and control it in the absence of ART. In stark contrast with the speed with which the Covid-19 vaccines were developed in two years of the pandemic, an effective vaccine for HIV is still a challenge after decades of ongoing research. Coincidentally, both HIV and SARS-CoV-2 are pandemic causing mRNA viruses, which have spilled from animal sources. They mutate and attach to their host cells with their surface spikes. The paper is a review of the status of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the unique challenges of the complex structure of the virus for the development of vaccines and a hope from the novel game-changing mRNA vaccine. After the recent success of the mRNA vaccine for Covid-19, it may become a promising tool to defeat HIV also by providing RNA-based HIV immunogens to trigger the body's immune response.