There are now at least four classes of drugs for the treatment of HIV, including NRTI, NNRTI, protease inhibitors and entry inhibitors. The combination of three or more of these anti-retroviral drugs is referred to as HAART and constitutes the standard of care for HIV-1 patients in industrialized nations. Although HAART is effective at reducing viral load, patients are still faced with problems such as toxicity, viral resistance and exorbitant costs, therefore the search for new HIV therapeutics continues. The conference """"""""lmmunomodulating drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS"""""""" to be held September 9-10, 2004 at the Villa Quaranta Park Hotel, Verona, Italy will address innovative immune enhancing approaches to HIV therapy. The audience and participants (ca 150) will include scientific leaders from this area of research, as well as promising junior researchers, clinicians and scientists involved in related fields of basic research. The topics to be addressed include: the mechanism of action of cytostatic drugs, their effect on the immune system and the clinical use of these drugs. The two-day meeting will be organized into specific sessions, each to be followed by a brief discussion period; the meeting will conclude with a round table discussion devoted to the key aspects of immune modulating therapy. Furthermore, we intend to publish the meeting proceedings and establish a web site with an on-line record. The conference will be jointly sponsored by the non-profit institute RIGHT, Washington DC and San Matteo Hospital, Pavia, Italy. The San Matteo Hospital will be supporting the majority of the costs (65%) for the conference and RIGHT is applying to the NIH to cover the travel expenses of the US invited speakers and the publishing costs of the meeting proceedings.
