: Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia meeting entitled HIV Persistence: Pathogenesis and Eradication, organized by David M. Margolis, Satya Dandekar and Susana T. Valente. The meeting will be held in Olympic Valley, California from March 20-24, 2016. Despite the clinical success of antiretroviral therapy (ART), every day there are more people newly infected with HIV than those initiating ART. The complexities of dispensing lifelong ART for HIV-infected individuals make it imperative to develop strategies for HIV eradication, or at least to strictly control the virus without daily therapy. The clearance of a retroviral infection is a herculean task and requires unraveling the mechanisms of viral persistence and host immune interactions. Further, ART does not appear to completely mitigate the impact of HIV infection on human health, and a better understanding of the overt and subtle immune pathologies induced by HIV infection is needed. Recent studies of early therapeutic interventions and HIV-resistant cellular therapies have provided new insights into the development of HIV eradication strategies. This meeting will focus on all aspects of HIV persistence and eradication that include: 1) The understanding of persistent HIV infection; 2) Innate defenses against retroviral infection; 3) The interplay of the host inflammatory response and HIV pathogenesis; and 4) Novel concepts for viral eradication. Special attention will be paid to progress in the development of model systems to study latent infection as well as strategies to eradicate it. Emphasis will be placed on new, unpublished findings that will highlight novel insights and creative strategies to develop effective control an eradication of HIV infection. Opportunities for interdisciplinary interactions will be significantl enhanced by the concurrent meeting on HIV Vaccines, which will share Keynote addresses and two plenary sessions with this meeting.
The path forward in curing HIV infection will require a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of viral latency that could lead to the identification of new drugs, and a better knowledge of the plasticity and dynamics of HIV cellular reservoirs. The Keystone Symposia meeting on HIV Persistence: Pathogenesis and Eradication will provide a forum to (i) gather scientists within and outside the HIV community to discuss the potential obstacles to HIV cure, (ii) give to the attendees information on the new advances in technical research which could help their research programs in HIV cure, and (iii) reinforce the links between scientists and physicians in academia and industry involved in HIV cure.
