Status of immune-based therapies in HIV infection and AIDS.

As our understanding of HIV disease pathogenesis progresses, approaches to immune-based therapy are evolving. Initial therapies aiming to alter immune function in patients with HIV infection have had mixed results. Clinical benefit in the trials so far has not been dramatic, although the studies are still at an early stage, and the correct protocols for the various agents or combinations of agents have yet to be established. As might be expected, where apparent benefit has occurred, it has been more obvious in those patients whose immune system was still intact.