Over two days there were

23 presentations and four breakout sessions, all of which contributed to contents and conclusions of this paper. One theme BMN 673 in vitro throughout the meeting was the intersection of therapeutic and preventive vaccine research. Presentations by Drs. Harriet Robinson, Chil-Yong Kang, Pablo Tebas and Carol Weiss addressed the lessons that could be learned from preventive vaccines, and identified opportunities for collaboration between the two fields. The meeting began with a presentation by Dr. Yves Levy on the scientific rationale for therapeutic vaccines. The initial impetus for studying therapeutic HIV vaccines was based on the early, widely held view that HIV remained latent for a prolonged period before eventually emerging to cause AIDS. If there was a period of

viral quiescence, it was reasoned, it might allow for bolstering HIV-specific immunity and enhance prospects for continued viral containment with vaccination [1]. Enthusiasm for the idea has ebbed and flowed over the years, with initial optimism eroded by largely disappointing results from early clinical trials. Interest also declined with both the welcomed success of the modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) era with its ability to control viral load and transmission, PF-02341066 nmr and the sobering finding that HIV compromises the immune system early in infection and continues to progressively damage it due to ongoing viral replication during the asymptomatic period [2]. Recent developments have provided new reasons to more rigorously pursue therapeutic HIV vaccine research. Chief among them is the renewed focus on curing HIV infection, and evidence from in vitro studies suggesting that therapeutic vaccination might be able to contribute to clearance of virus persisting in the presence of ART, which Amisulpride suppresses viral load but does not eliminate latent viral reservoirs [3]. Drs. Galit Alter, Vidar Wendel-Hansen, Lucy Dorrell and Mike McCune discussed the immunologic responses that they believe

will be necessary for therapeutic HIV vaccines. Recent research indicates that there may be previously unexplored opportunities for manipulating immune responses, such as harnessing emerging information about innate immunity to develop improved vaccine adjuvants [4], exploiting antibody effector mechanisms [5], [6] and [7], anti-immune activation or exhaustion approaches [8] and [9], and regulatory T cell responses [10]. In many cases, interest in these areas overlaps work that is underway in the preventive vaccine field. The advent of combination ART largely shifted the goals of therapeutic vaccination toward delaying, simplifying or allowing intermittent ART treatment, although these objectives have varied depending on setting and the associated feasibility of access to lifelong ART.