The development of an HIV-1/AIDS vaccine has posed great challenges over the last two decades to the international scientific community. The synthesis of a viable vaccine component has gained momentum in recent years after several learning stories with partial success. The moderate efficacy showed by RV144 (ENV-gp120, Gag and Pro) vaccine (Thai trial vaccine) in clinical trials provided impetus to the study during the last decade. The technological challenge in the production of the viral spike as a viable vaccine component is realized since the conclusion of the Thai trial (2009). The results from the NIAID-sponsored South African HVTN 702 (ALVAC-HIV + subtype C gp120/MF59 2700) trial are awaited. The HIV-1 envelope spike [ENV GP160 trimer complex] is being exploited as a promising vaccine candidate in recent years. A number of knowledge points on the viral spike are now available using data derived from several disciplines of biotechnology. The production of a native conformation of the HIV-1 ENV GP160 trimer SPIKE with appropriate glycosylation taking into consideration about 39,000 variants of known GP160 sequences among known subtypes (as available at the LANL database) is found to be nontrivial. The known HIV-1 ENV GP160 trimer SPIKE electron microscopy structure at 4.19 resolution shows nine interfaces with three different types. Their characteristic features are interesting towards the development of a stable yet effective trimer complex. The GP41-GP41 and GP41-GP120 interfaces are characteristics of equal polar to non-polar residues, and the GP120-GP120 interfaces are predominantly polar in nature. These data find application in the development of an immunologically viable vaccine component. © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2017.