Clinical trials aimed at HIV cure or remission: new pathways and lessons learned.

The landscape of clinical trials for HIV cure and remission has evolved considerably over the past ten years. Several novel interventions such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, therapeutic vaccines and broadly neutralizing antibodies have been tested either alone or in combination with LRAs but studies have so far not shown a meaningful impact on the frequency of latently infected cells. Immunomodulatory therapies could work differently in the setting of antigen expression i.e. during active viremia, and timing of interventions could therefore be key to future therapeutic success. Lessons learned from clinical trials aimed at HIV cure indicate that while we are still far from reaching a complete eradication cure of HIV, clinical interventions capable of inducing enhanced control of HIV replication in the absence of ART might be a more feasible goal.