Delayed progression to AIDS in volunteers treated with long‐term HIV‐1 Immunogen (REMUNE®) therapy in Thailand

Abstract

This Thai study, like previous US and European studies, confirms that therapeutic immunization of HIV-infected volunteers modifies disease progression, as evidenced by stabilization of CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts, body weight, and viral load. As the majority of asymptomatic patients demonstrated an objective response to immunization, this study suggests that REMUNE may be utilized prior to initiation of antiviral drug therapy when CD4 cell counts are still above the current ART guidelines. Further work should be carried out to examine its potential use in combination with ART in order to reduce the increasingly common occurrence of drug resistance.