This article is - freely available The Development of an AIDS
Mucosal Vaccine AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine,
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Department of
Microbiology and Research Center of Infection and Immunology, Li
Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong SAR, China * Author to whom correspondence should be
addressed. Received: 12 October 2009; in revised form: 20
January 2010 / Accepted: 20 January 2010 / Published: 22 January
2010 Abstract: It is well known that mucosal tissues contain the
largest surface area of the human body and are the front line of
natural host defense against various pathogens. In fact, more
than 80% of infectious disease pathogens probably gain entry
into the susceptible human hosts through open mucosal surfaces.
Human immunodeficiency virus type one (HIV-1), a mainly sexually
transmitted virus, also primarily targets the vaginal and
gastrointestinal mucosa as entry sites for viral transmission,
seeding, replication