For
10 years now, an international workshop has been launched in order to
study the mechanisms of HIV persistence in viral reservoirs and ways
to eradicate HIV in patients on potent antiretroviral therapy. Its
next edition is scheduled in Miami (Fl, USA) on December 3-6, 2013.
Toulon,
France, May 8, 2013 -- Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)
has transformed HIV infection from a deadly to a chronic disease.
However, HIV-infected patients are still facing problems of
compliance, resistance, toxicity, and stigmatization. Furthermore,
cART access remains limited in poor-resource countries where most
patients reside.
Even
if cART is capable of maintaining undetectable levels of plasma
viremia in compliant patients, HIV is not eradicated and remains
present in some cells, allowing viremia to rise within a few weeks of
cART cessation.
HIV
latency is the main obstacle to a cure and cells carrying
replication-competent HIV are called reservoirs. These HIV reservoirs
are stable after more than 10 years of suppressive cART and are not
affected by current antiretroviral drugs.
The
success of cART at blocking HIV replication has led to a shift in the
HIV treatment field toward the development of new strategies to
eradicate HIV reservoirs.
In
theory, there are 2 kinds of HIV cures:
-A
sterilizing cure where no trace of HIV remains;
-A
functional cure where HIV replication is controlled without cART. In
this condition, a patient can retain some defective viral sequences
but viremia <20 copies/ml is a guarantee of no clinical
progression and an unlikely risk of virus transmission.
For
10 years now, an international workshop has been launched in order to
study the mechanisms of HIV persistence in viral reservoirs and ways
to eradicate HIV in patients on potent antiretroviral therapy. This
workshop welcomed an increasing number of participants over the years
and was held every 2-year in St Marteen. Its next edition is
scheduled in Miami (Fl, USA) on December 3-6, 2013. The Steering
Committee and the Scientific Committee of this workshop contains
renowned scientists working in the field of HIV reservoirs and
eradication from USA, Europe and Australia. Participants can submit
an abstract to present their work during the meeting.
Over
the years, the "International Workshop on HIV Persistence during
Therapy" has been recognized as the reference meeting on HIV
reservoirs and strategies for eradication. The first editions were
mainly focused on the basic mechanisms of HIV persistence, but since
the 2011 edition, an increased part is devoted to clinical trials of
HIV eradication. For example, this year will be discussed strategies
of reactivation of latent HIV, immune therapies and gene therapies.
Researchers
working on HIV reservoirs and strategies for eradication, as well as
clinicians and pharmaceutical companies are invited to sign in and
attend what will be a cornerstone meeting on HIV reservoirs.
The
advanced program is available at:
http://www.hiv-workshop.com/HIV-Reservoirs-cure-persistence-workshop.htm
About
us: the Steering Committee for the "6th International Workshop
on HIV Persistence during Therapy" contains Alain Lafeuillade,
MD (Toulon, France), Mario Stevenson, MD, PhD (Miami, USA) and David
Margolis (Chapel Hill, USA). The Scientific Committee contains
academic members and members from R & D from pharmaceutical
companies.
Media
Contact:
Alain
Lafeuillade
General
Hospital,
51
rue Henri Ste Claire Deville,
83000
Toulon, France
+33
4 94 14 50 84
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