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Embracing the complexity of HIV immunology

This article introduces a series of reviews covering HIV Immunology appearing in Volume 254 of Immunological Reviews. Since the first description of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1981 and the isolation of its etiologic agent in 1983 (a discovery that was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in 2008), it has become clear that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is uniquely complex from an immunological point of view (Fig. 1). Over the following 30 years, many aspects of the interaction between HIV and the host immune system have been elucidated, while others remain relatively poorly understood. Since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the mid 1990s, the mortality and morbidity associated with HIV infection has dramatically declined. However, none of the current therapeutic regimens can eradicate the infection or induce a full recovery of the host immune system, and the personal and social costs of HIV infection and AIDS remain intolerably high. As a result of the widespread use of ART, many aspects of HIV immunology are now investigated not only during the natural history of the infection but also in the context of long-term virus suppression induced by antiretroviral agents. In this volume of Immunological Reviews, a series of articles by internationally recognized experts in the field describe the state of the art of numerous aspects of the complex immunology of HIV infection and AIDS. The reader will note that several of these articles refer extensively to the results of studies conducted in various non-human primate models of HIV infection, in which the animals are experimentally infected with either simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) or chimeric simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV). In particular, pathogenic SIV infection of Asian macaques results in a disease that is very similar to AIDS in humans in terms of transmission, dissemination, basic virology, immunology, and pathogenesis, thus providing an uniquely valuable animal model that has yielded scientific data with a major impact on our ability to prevent and treat this deadly infection (reviewed in 1, 2). The reader will also note that while an effective AIDS vaccine is still not available, much progress has been made in understanding what Immunological Reviews 2013 Vol. 254: 5–9 Printed in Singapore. All rights reserved