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
lafeuillade@orange.fr
http://www.hiv-workshop.com