Mechanisms of HIV Persistence: Implications for a Cure

Organizer(s): Olivier Lambotte, Steven G. Deeks and Guido Silvestri

Sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Merck & Co., Inc. and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. Part of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Summary of Meeting:

Despite long-term control of HIV replication with cART, HIV persists as silenced integrated DNA in memory CD4 T cells, and possibly in other cellular reservoirs, including naïve cells and macrophages. Low-level replenishment of the reservoir via limited cycles of replication may also contribute to persistence, at least in some patients. Curing HIV infection will only occur if these barriers are reversed, or if host capacity to control HIV indefinitely is improved. A number of promising interventions which might reverse latent infection have been identified, and proof that such drugs affect HIV transcription in vivo provided in pilot clinical trials. The observation that few patients treated during primary infection durably control replication-competent HIV after interrupting therapy suggests host responses might be manipulated, leading to a functional cure. The path forward will require a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of viral latency which could lead to the identification of new drugs, and a better knowledge of the plasticity and dynamics of the main HIV cell reservoirs: CD4 T cells and macrophages. The role of the tissue microenvironment has to be underlined with the major help of non-human primate models. At this meeting, experts from both within and outside the HIV field will present findings from recent advances on immune mechanisms and therapeutic strategies which could lead to an HIV cure.

Global Health Travel Award Deadline: November 25 2014

Scholarship Deadline: December 22 2014

Discounted Abstract Deadline: December 22 2014

Abstract Deadline: January 28 2015

Discounted Registration Deadline: February 26 2015

Keystone Symposia thanks our Sponsor(s) for generously supporting this meeting:

We gratefully acknowledge additional in-kind support for this conference from those foregoing speaker expense reimbursements:

Gilead Sciences, Inc.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous grant for this conference provided by:

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Grant No. 1R13AI116250-01
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