MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1670423
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Tissue Repair: Immunomodulatory Bioactive Hydrogels and Immune Cell InteractionsView all 4 articles
Immunomodulatory biomaterials in HIV-1 infection prevention, control and treatment
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nantong Third People’s Hospital, Affiliated Nantong Hospital 3 of Nantong University, School of Public Health, Nantong University, Nantong, China
- 2Nantong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nantong, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is a global infectious disease that remains a significant global health challenge. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly reduced HIV-1-related morbidity and mortality, it cannot eradicate viral reservoirs latent in host cells and long-term use of ART is also associated with issues such as drug toxicity, drug resistance, and poor patient compliance. Recent achievements in biomaterials have provided new ideas and tools for AIDS prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Therefore, this review aims to summarize the latest research progress on biomaterials for immune cell functional regulation and immune activation strategies in HIV-1 prevention, control, and treatment. These approaches include enhancing the functions of CD8+ T cells and macrophages and synergizing with the targeted delivery and immunomodulatory capabilities of biomaterials to achieve viral clearance and immune reconstitution. Current challenges and the great potentials of biomaterials in drug delivery, vaccine development, and physical barriers for HIV-1 infection are discussed, along with future perspectives. By systematically reviewing relevant research findings, this review may provide theoretical basis and technical tools for promoting the clinical translation and application of biomaterials for HIV-1 infection.
Keywords: immunomodulatory, Biomaterials, HIV-1, T cell, Macrophages
Received: 21 Jul 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Tang, Zhou, Ni, Liang, Sun and Zhuang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiaying Li, Nantong Third People’s Hospital, Affiliated Nantong Hospital 3 of Nantong University, School of Public Health, Nantong University, Nantong, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.