Natural Immunity against HIV-1: Progression of Understanding after Association Studies

Ma Luo

doi:10.3390/v14061243

Natural Immunity against HIV-1: Progression of Understanding after Association Studies

Viruses. 2022 Jun 8;14(6):1243. doi: 10.3390/v14061243.

Author

Ma Luo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3L5, Canada.
² Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9, Canada.

Abstract

Natural immunity against HIV has been observed in many individuals in the world. Among them, a group of female sex workers enrolled in the Pumwani sex worker cohort remained HIV uninfected for more than 30 years despite high-risk sex work. Many studies have been carried out to understand this natural immunity to HIV in the hope to develop effective vaccines and preventions. This review focuses on two such examples. These studies started from identifying immunogenetic or genetic associations with resistance to HIV acquisition, and followed up with an in-depth investigation to understand the biological relevance of the correlations of protection, and to develop and test novel vaccines and preventions.

Keywords: FREM1; HLA; TILRR; inflammation; the PCS vaccine.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Female
HIV Infections*
HIV Seropositivity*
HIV-1* / genetics
Humans
Immunity, Innate
Sex Workers*

Grants and funding

Ma Luo is an employee of National Microbiology Laboratory. Her salary is provided by the National Microbiology Laboratory. No other funding is received for writing this review.