Nature Medicine
February 2013, Volume 19 No 2 pp113-246
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19/n2/index.html

Perspectives
Harnessing CD4+ T cell responses in HIV vaccine development – pp143 – 149
Hendrik Streeck, M Patricia D’Souza, Dan R Littman & Shane Crotty
doi:10.1038/nm.3054

There is renewed enthusiasm in developing an HIV vaccine and in understanding the requirements to elicit broadly neutralizing HIV-specific antibodies. In May 2012, a workshop convened researchers to discuss the interplay of CD4+ T cell and antibody responses to help identify key questions and areas of research that can inform future vaccine development. This Perspective summarizes the discussion of three main topics on the role of CD4+ T cells in HIV vaccine design.

Abstract
CD4+ T cells can perform a panoply of tasks to shape an effective response against a pathogen. Limited attention has been paid to the potential importance of functional CD4+ T cell responses in the context of the development of next-generation vaccines, including HIV vaccines. Many CD4+ T cell functions are newly appreciated and only partially understood. A workshop was held as a forum to bring together a small group of experts to exchange ideas on the role of CD4+ T cells in developing durable functional antibody responses, via follicular helper T cells, as well as on the roles of CD4+ T cells in other aspects of protective immunity. Here we discuss whether CD4+ T cell responses may represent a beneficial component of an efficacious HIV vaccine.