Current treatment of HIV and prospects for cure

HIV/AIDS has changed from a deadly disease in the early 1990s to a chronic treatment following huge research efforts. HIV had a great impact due to the long period until its fatal consequences in the form of AIDS appeared. As a consequence, the spread of the disease was global. However, even now, after many years of extensive research, there is still no functional cure or eradication possible. This review provides an overview on HIV/AIDS covering a description of the disease, the mechanism of infection, HIV/AIDS symptoms, the current treatment options, the formation of latent reservoirs, and the efforts to provide a cure of HIV including CCR5Δ32/Δ32 donor stem cell transplantation, gene therapy, broadly neutralizing antibodies, HIV vaccination, chimeric antigen receptor cells, latency-addressing agents, and combination approaches.