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Immunotherapy in HIV Infection
| Bhawna Poonia* | ||
| Division of Basic Science and Vaccine Research, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore 21201, USA | ||
| Corresponding Author : | Bhawna Poonia Division of Basic Science and Vaccine Research Institute of Human Virology University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore 21201, USA E-mail: bpoonia@ihv.umaryland.edu |
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| Received January 15, 2013; Accepted March 05, 2013; Published March 09, 2013 | ||
| Citation: Poonia B (2013) Immunotherapy in HIV Infection. J Infect Dis Ther 1:102. doi:10.4172/2332-0877.1000102 | ||
| Copyright: © 2013 Poonia B. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | ||
Related article at Pubmed Scholar Google |
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Abstract
Substantial progress has been made in devising successful therapies against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) replication, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) can provide a sustained control of HIV replication. It is, however, associated with at best partial immune reconstitution, as well as lack of elimination of viral reservoirs. Both innate and adaptive immune cell compartments that suffer as a result of HIV replication, fail to recover completely under ART, hence, the need for lifelong therapy once infected. Novel therapeutic approaches are being tested at an encouraging rate and have the potential to improve the odds against the virus. Among them, immunotherapeutic approaches are one of the exciting areas and can be considered as adjunct to ART for improving immune competence. Cells of the innate immune system, including natural killer (NK) cells, gamma delta (γδ) T cells and natural killer T (NKT) cells have cytotoxic potential against viruses, and therapies including such effector cells will be useful. The fact that HIV infection results in a severe dysfunction in most of these effector subsets, warrants approaches that take this into consideration. One reason for the dysfunction of immune cells is the disruption of the common γ chain family of cytokines during HIV infection. These cytokines play vital role in regulating functional activities of such immune effector cells. Consequently, besides and along with cells, these cytokines including IL-2, IL-7, IL-15 and IL-21 have shown some promise against HIV infection. This review briefly summarizes the immune therapy options in HIV infection, with special focus on innate cells and cytokines.
