International Efforts for a Society Free of AIDS: HIV Reservoirs Control

Toulon, IL, January 07, 2010 -- HIV and Aids have been around for 3 decades and yet, few diseases have ever had such a profound effect: it has taken the lives of millions of people and hit virtually every nation in the world. In addition, there is still no cure and Doctors and researcher are still fighting to create a society without AIDS.

All over the globe teams of scientists are actually dedicating their time and resources to finding a way to tackle HIV reservoirs as the virus survives hidden in these sanctuary sites despite therapy. What is it about this particular disease that makes it so difficult to cure?

HIV is impossible to eradicate because it establishes reservoirs. Although the disease can be slowed with antiretroviral therapy, HIV cannot be totally eradicated from the body. One of the main reasons is that HIV hides from drugs and immune surveillance in different organs and regions of the body, such as the brain and the gut. Doctors are not even yet able to determine and identify all the places where the disease can hide. HIV is also established in a dormant state in some reservoir cells where it can last for decades.

The ability of HIV to hide and remain silent makes some people wonder if the disease will ever truly be "cured" one day.  Even if a sterilizing cure, i.e. getting rid of the virus in an infected individual, seems currently out of reach, other strategies of ‘control’ are on the horizon. First, by treating HIV infection very early, at the time of acute infection, up to 15% of patients can sustain HIV replication control after therapy is subsequently stopped. HIV is still present in these patients but remains silent, causing no harm, despite discontinuation of antiretroviral drugs. Therefore, they have been transformed in “Elite Controllers”, these rare cases of HIV infection (less than 1% of infected individuals) where the body itself is able to control the virus without medication. Then, some researchers are testing strategies to “purge” the reservoir. They give antiretrovirals to the patient to block HIV replication, but also other molecules able to stimulate HIV replication…in the cells where the virus is dormant. They hope to bring these cells to be destroyed or to die due to HIV expression, whereas healthy cells are protected by antiretrovirals.

To hasten progress in HIV reservoirs cure or control, a coordination strategy is urgently needed. In that way, we launched in 2003 an international HIV reservoirs workshop, dedicated to researchers, which also is a think tank on this topic. New scientific results relevant to tackling HIV persistence were presented at the second workshop in 2005, more clinical results were shown at the following editions in 2007 and 2009.

Whether eradicating the virus (HIV sterilizing cure) or achieving long-term remission in the absence of continued therapy (HIV functional cure) will be possible one day remains currently unknown. The categories of the workshop sessions span from animal models, identifying the locations of HIV reservoirs in the body, the mechanisms of viral persistence, to potential therapeutic interventions and methods to evaluate their impact.

In 2007 and 2009 we were joined in our fight against HIV reservoirs by institutional support, both from the NIH (American National Institute of Health) and the ANRS (French Agency for AIDS Research). The workshop was also accredited by the Massachusetts School of Medicine. The 2011 HIV reservoirs workshop will be held in December in Saint Martin.

About us:
HIV Reservoirs and Eradication Strategies Workshop: http://www.hiv-reservoirs.com

Contact:

Ted Ias
AVPS
Toulon, IL, USA
Tel: 494616340
E-Mail: lafeuillade@orange.fr
Web: http://www.hiv-reservoirs.com

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