The quest to understand protective immunity to HIV-1 through studies on maternal-infant HIV-1 transmission

Abstract

Understanding immune processes that contribute to how some human hosts prevent the establishment of human immunodefciency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection upon exposure, or counter accelerated disease progression if infected, will provide the basis for the design of better-targeted interventions to curb HIV-1 infection. There is little doubt that new immune targets need to be identifed aside from the usual emphasis on cytotoxic T lymphocyte and neutralising antibody responses, classic favourites and hallmark responses of the adaptive immune system. However, potential contenders reside within the innate immune system, a component under-studied by comparison and one that increasingly is not "playing by the rules" and delivering some welcome surprises. With both adaptive and innate immunity in mind, we have, since 1996, studied several HIV-1-infected mother-child cohorts, utilising this natural infection model in search of new correlates of protection against one of the most devastating scourges of our time.