Scientific Strategy Towards HIV Reservoirs Cure

The Fifth 'International Workshop on HIV Persistence, Reservoirs & Eradication Strategies' will be held from December 6-9, 2011, in St. Martin, West Indies. The topics explored are geared towards an understanding both of the mechanisms involved in HIV persistence in its reservoirs, and the possibilities of finding new strategies to use in order to eradicate HIV from infected hosts. The preliminary program is now online.

Toulon, France, April 05, 2011 -- Despite effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV persists in viral reservoirs and anatomic sanctuaries in a ‘dormant’ or latent state. Consequently, ART has to be taken life-long, implying problems of compliance, resistance, toxicity, cost, and each time it is interrupted, the infection rekindles. Furthermore, most infected individuals live in poor-resource countries where less than 40 percent of patients have access to these therapies. Finally, in the absence of a preventive vaccine, more than 33 million individuals are infected worldwide with 7,000 daily new cases.

It is therefore urgency to increase our scientific understanding of the mechanisms allowing HIV persistence and test new strategies for a cure, either sterilizing or functional.

This is the objective a group of scientists tackled since 2003 when they founded the first edition of the ‘International Workshop on HIV Persistence, Reservoirs & Eradication Strategies’. This group contains international researchers and clinicians such as Doctors Alain Lafeuillade (Toulon, France), Mario Stevenson (Miami, USA), Robert Gallo (Baltimore, USA), Jose Gatell (Barcelona, Spain), David Margolis (Chapel Hill, USA), Tae-Wook Chun (Bethesda, USA), Nicolas Chomont (Port St. Lucie, USA), Monsef Benkirane (Montpellier, France), Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (Paris, France, 2008 Nobel Price) and others.

This steering group has just unveiled the preliminary program of the 5th edition of their workshop, to be held this December in Saint Martin (West Indies). This one contains basic sessions on animal models of HIV persistence, virology, immunology, and two sessions on eradication strategies including gene therapy. Several speakers are already scheduled, from the US, Europe, and Australia, and the program will be complemented in the forthcoming months by selected abstracts from participants.

The workshop objectives are to bring together basic scientists and clinicians, present and discuss unpublished data, define future scientific priorities and increase the global commitment towards an HIV cure. It has already received support from Abbott Virology, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead, Janssen, ViiV Healthcare and the ANRS (French Agency for AIDS Research).

Contact: Alain Lafeuillade, MD, General Hospital, Toulon, France; Ph: +33-4-94616340; Fax: +33-4-94616341 ; email : lafeuillade@orange.fr; Website : http://www.hiv-workshop.com/workshop-2011.htm

This steering group has just unveiled the preliminary program of the 5th edition of their workshop, to be held this December in Saint Martin (West Indies).

Contact:
Alain Lafeuillade
Hiv-Workshop
General Hospital
Toulon, France
33-4-94616340
lafeuillade@orange.fr
http://www.hiv-workshop.com/workshop-2011.htm

This release was published on openPR.