1. Introduction: Forty Years of HIV Research
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus that infects cells of the immune system and, if untreated, progressively destroys them, leading to AIDS and death from opportunistic infections and malignancies. Since the identification of the virus in the early 1980s, research has produced one of modern medicine’s most consequential transformations: combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) now suppresses viral replication to undetectable levels, restores immune function, and prevents transmission to partners («undetectable = untransmittable»). HIV has become, for most people with access to care, a manageable chronic condition.
Yet two problems remain unsolved. The first is the latent viral reservoir: HIV integrates its genome into the DNA of long-lived immune cells, where it can persist silently for decades, rebounding within weeks if therapy stops. The second is access and equity: prevention and treatment remain unevenly available. These two realities define the research agenda — durable prevention, and a cure that no one has yet achieved at scale.
This page introduces the field and acts as a navigator through the HIV collection on Project 150X — its sub-sections, themed tag collections, and essential reading.
2. Main Research Directions in HIV
- Antiretroviral therapy. Combination regimens that block multiple stages of the viral lifecycle (entry, reverse transcription, integration, maturation). The foundation of modern care.
- Prevention. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), including long-acting injectable and topical formulations.
- Cure research. Strategies to eliminate or permanently silence the latent reservoir: «shock and kill,» «block and lock,» therapeutic vaccines, and broadly neutralising antibodies.
- Genetic and cellular approaches. Gene editing (for example, CRISPR-based excision of proviral DNA) and CCR5-targeted cell engineering.
- Immunotherapy and immune restoration. Interventions aimed at the immune dysfunction that persists even under suppressive therapy.
- Clinical trials. How prevention and cure strategies are tested, and why surrogate markers differ from functional cure.
3. Navigating the HIV Section
All HIV articles live in the category HIV. Two sub-sections organise the material, and tags group articles by theme.
3.1. Sub-sections
- Treatment — the larger sub-section, covering antiretroviral regimens, prevention technologies, immunotherapy, and critical appraisals of unproven approaches.
- Genetic Approaches — gene-editing and cellular strategies aimed at the reservoir and at host resistance to infection.
3.2. Themed Collections (Tags)
Use the tags to follow a specific thread across the category. Each link opens the full tag archive.
- HIV Research — the broadest collection, spanning the whole field. A good starting point.
- Prevention — PrEP, PEP, and biomedical prevention strategies, including long-acting and topical options. One of the clearest successes of HIV science.
- Treatment — antiretroviral therapy and the management of HIV as a chronic infection.
- Immunotherapy — immune-based interventions, from interferons and cytokines to checkpoint inhibitors and therapeutic vaccines.
- Cure Research — attempts to eliminate or permanently silence the reservoir. The field’s most ambitious goal, and its least certain.
- Gene Therapy — genetic strategies against HIV, including CRISPR-based approaches and CCR5 modification. Largely experimental.
- Clinical Trials — how HIV interventions are evaluated in humans, and why validating a «functional cure» is methodologically difficult.
- Alternative Methods — critical appraisals of non-evidence-based claims (for example, laetrile), including their documented harms.
4. Selected Reading
- Combination Antiretroviral Therapy — how HIV became a manageable chronic infection.
- Oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, Long-Acting Cabotegravir, and Lenacapavir — the evolution of prevention.
- CCR5Δ32 Stem Cell Transplantation: The Berlin, London, and Düsseldorf Cures — the handful of documented cures and what they teach.
- Shock and Kill vs Block and Lock — the two dominant reservoir strategies.
- Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies and Therapeutic HIV Vaccines — immunotherapeutic routes to control or cure.
- CRISPR-Cas9 Against HIV — excising viral DNA from the genome of infected cells.
5. How to Read These Materials
The HIV collection maintains a clear distinction between established clinical practice (suppressive antiretroviral therapy and approved prevention), experimental strategies in trials (long-acting agents, gene editing, cure approaches), and claims unsupported by evidence (alternative remedies such as laetrile). Cure-related articles are explicit that no scalable cure exists, that the documented cases involved exceptional circumstances, and that «functional cure» is not the same as eradication of the virus. Where numerical results are given, they are referenced to primary literature; figures that could not be verified are flagged for review.
Nothing in this section constitutes medical advice. HIV prevention and treatment decisions should be made with qualified clinicians.
6. Conclusion
HIV research is a story of remarkable success and unfinished business. Treatment and prevention are highly effective and continue to improve; a cure remains elusive. Use the sub-sections to separate treatment and prevention from genetic approaches, and the tags to follow a single theme — prevention, cure research, immunotherapy, or gene therapy — across the whole collection.