Editorial
Advances against HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) continues to be a major health problem with more than 4 million new infections in 2006, an estimated 2.8 million deaths in the same year and 39 million people living with HIV worldwide. Existing therapies are still out of reach for 80% of those who need them, and the development of an effective HIV vaccine and new types of drug remains a pressing scientific challenge.
This collection of articles from Nature seeks to highlight the considerable progress that has been made over the past couple of years in understanding the interplay between the virus and the immune system of infected individuals at the molecular and cellular levels. The immunopathogenic consequences of viral infection have been elucidated (pages 17, 22 and 44), the cellular determinants of transmission have been characterized (pages 10 and 26), the three-dimensional structures of crucial cellular and viral proteins have been deduced (pages 2, 37 and 49), and a strategy has been developed to circumvent pre-existing immunity to a potential vaccine-delivery vector (page 31).
We hope that the insights gained from these studies will help to define new therapeutic targets and will prove useful in the rational design of an effective vaccine. As always, Nature Publishing Group carries sole responsibility for all editorial content.
We thank Merck & Co., Inc. for their support in reproducing this collection.
