About this Research Topic

Background

The year 2021 marks the 40th year since the discovery of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in our world. Since then, this devastating disease has profoundly changed our perception of the impact that infectious diseases can have, with it influencing every corner of the world and every aspect of our daily lives. In less than two years, scientists, physicians, and public health professionals worked hand-in-hand to successfully identify human immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1) as the causative agent of AIDS, providing a fundamental basis and precise target for the development of diagnosis, antiretroviral drugs, and vaccines. Thanks to the scientific breakthroughs made over the last 40 years, we have achieved remarkable progress in controlling the disease progression by antiretroviral therapy and markedly improved the quality of life of infected individuals. However, we are still quite far away from completely curing this disease as HIV-1 can persist through dormancy and resurge after cessation of treatment. Furthermore, we are even further away from developing safe and effective vaccines in preventing HIV-1 infection, as our understanding of the protective immunity against HIV-1 is still in its infancy.

Nevertheless, 40 years after, it is the perfect time to reflect on the experiences and lessons learned during our battle with this tough virus. The wisdom we collectively gather will not only guide us to improve our current prevention and treatment strategies but also spark outside of the box ideas that will ultimately lead to the successful development of therapy and effective vaccines against HIV-1/AIDS. It is with these hopes and desires that we organize this Research Topic. Your contribution will inspire all of us and, more importantly, the next generation of researchers to devote their careers to this utmost daunting, but enormously rewarding, challenge facing human health.

Given the wealth of knowledge we have learned since the beginning of the epidemic and the tough challenges we have been facing, we aim to cover a wide range of topics related to HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we cordially invite original research and review articles on the following topics, but are not limited to:

• Molecular Virology of HIV-1 Infection
• Epidemiology and effective public health measures
• New diagnosis technologies at the point of care
• Molecular epidemiology and molecular network of HIV-1
• Natural history of HIV-1 infection
• Prevention of mother to child transmission
• Interaction between HIV-1 and hosts
• Protective immunity against HIV-1 (innate, humoral, and cellular immunity)
• HIV-1 disease progression and human genetics
• Translational and clinical research on antiviral/immune/gene therapy
• Vaccine design and development and animal models

Keywords: AIDS, HIV-1, Vaccine, Epidemiology, Public health, Antiviral, Gene therapy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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