HIV/AIDS: IMMUNOCHEMISTRY, REDUCTIONISM AND VACCINE DESIGN. A REVIEW OF 20 YEARS OF RESEARCH

Part I.Immunochemistry
• 1 What is a B cell epitope
• 2 Molecular design versus empirical discovery in peptide-based vaccines. Coming to terms with fuzzy recognition sites and ill-defined structure–function relationships in immunology
• 3 Synthetic Peptide Vaccines and the Search for Neutralization B Cell Epitopes
• 4 Specificity, polyspecificity, and heterospecificity of antibody-antigen recognition
Part II. Reductionism
• 5 Reductionism and the search for structure–function relationships in antibody molecules
• 6 Reductionism and complexity in molecular biology
• 7 Editorial: Biological complexity emerges from the ashes of genetic reductionism
• 8 The rational design of biological complexity: A deceptive metaphor., 9 Basic research in HIV vaccinology is hampered by reductionist thinking
• 10 Commentary: Basic Research in HIV Vaccinology Is Hampered by Reductionist Thinking
• 11 Nature and Consequences of Biological Reductionism for the Immunological Study of Infectious Diseases., Part III. Vaccinology
• 12 Limitations to the structure-based design of HIV-1 vaccine immunogens
• 13 Two meanings of reverse vaccinology and the empirical nature of vaccine science
• 14 Requirements for empirical immunogenicity trials, rather than structure-based design, for developing an effective HIV vaccine
• 15 Paradigm Changes and the Future of HIV Vaccine Research: A Summary of a Workshop Held in Baltimore on 20 November 2013
• 16 Editorial: Paradigm changes are required in HIV vaccine research
• 17 An outdated notion of antibody specificity is one of the major detrimental assumptions of the structure-based reverse vaccinology paradigm, which prevented it from helping to develop an effective HIV-1 vaccine
• 18 More surprises in the development of an HIV vaccine
• 19 Why Does the Molecular Structure of Broadly Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies Isolated from Individuals Infected with HIV-1 not Inform the Rational Design of an HIV-1 Vaccine?
• 20 Old and New Concepts and Strategies in HIV Vaccinology: A Report from a Workshop held in Rome on 17 June 2016
• 21 Structure-Based Reverse Vaccinology Failed in the Case of HIV Because it Disregarded Accepted Immunological Theory
• 22 Immune systems rather than antigenic epitopes elicit and produce protective antibodies against HIV
• 23 Development of a Preventive HIV Vaccine Requires Solving Inverse Problems Which Is Unattainable by Rational Vaccine Design
• 24 Viral species, viral genomes and HIV vaccine design: is the rational design of biological complexity a utopia?

This book gathers a series of pivotal papers on the development of an HIV/AIDS vaccine published in the last two decades. Accompanied by extensive comments putting the material into an up-to-date context, all three parts of the book offer a broad overview of the numerous unsuccessful attempts made in recent years to develop a preventive HIV vaccine. Providing a detailed review and analysis of studies published from 1998 to the present day, it examines the likely reasons for the failure to develop an HIV vaccine despite multi-million dollar investments.

Features
• Provides a broad overview to the attempts to design a preventive HIV vaccine
• Broadens the understanding of reasons for the failure to develop a preventive HIV vaccine
• Includes numerous critical comments from an actual point of view