Table 1 Current strategies in HIV cure research

Direct reservoir manipulation

Latency reversal

Induction of the HIV provirus transcription in order to be targeted (“shock and kill”)

[6,7,8]

Latency silencing

Permanently silencing of the integrated provirus (“block and lock”)

[9, 10]

Gene editing

In vivo disruption of proviruses using gene editing (CRISPR technologies)

[11,12,13,14,15]

Immune modulation

Therapeutic vaccines

Boosting the immune system to eliminate HIV-infected cells

[16, 17]

Neutralising antibodies

Target virions and induce antibody-dependent cytotoxicity

[18]

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB)

Inhibition of the binding of immune checkpoint proteins to revert T-cell exhaustion

[19]

TLR-agonists

Boosting of innate & adaptive immunity

[20, 21]

Cell therapy

CAR-T cell

Engineered immune cells to target and kill HIV-infected cells

[13, 14]

Cell therapies

Transplantation of HIV-resistant (CCR5-defective) immune cells

[22]