Vaccines and Vaccination: HIV, Hepatitis Viruses, and HPV

Dear Colleagues,

Vaccines are one of the most important interventions in public health. Although antiviral drugs have improved, they are expensive and reinfection is still possible, so it is crucial to develop vaccines against HIV. However, it is difficult to develop these vaccines because of the genetic diversity and multiple immune evasion strategies of HIV. Both preventative and therapeutic approaches have failed to demonstrate full efficacy, so new approaches are needed. People living with HIV (PLWH) are at higher risk of vaccine-preventable diseases due to B cell, T cell, and NK cell dysfunction; chronic inflammation; and persistent mucosal epithelial abnormalities. Immune responses to vaccines are often suboptimal in PLWH, and HIV-infected children have a higher risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. Increasing the number or amounts of vaccine doses or using adjuvanted vaccines may improve immunogenicity in PLWH but further research is needed to understand the efficacy of different vaccine regimes.

In this Special Issue, we welcome research articles, review articles, and short communications that examine optimal immunization strategies and the ongoing development of vaccines against HIV, viral hepatitis, and HPV in PLWH, as well as novel challenges in the field of HIV vaccine research.

Dr. Ivan Schietroma
Dr. Sonia Moretti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• preventative vaccine
• therapeutic vaccine
• HIV
• hepatitis A
• hepatitis B
• human papillomavirus
• sexually transmitted infections
• immunoprotection
• vaccination
• preventable diseases