Towards an HIV cure: a global scientific strategy

Long-Term Control of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in Cynomolgus Macaques Not Associated with Efficient SIV-Specific CD8+T-Cell Responses

“…These cases are often considered examples in the search for a functional HIV cure (3). Most HIC are infected by replication-competent viruses (4)(5)(6), indicating that host mechanisms actively restrain HIV-1 infection.…”

Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVsab Infection of Rhesus Macaques as a Model of Complete Immunological Suppression with Persistent Reservoirs of Replication-Competent Virus: Implications for Cure Research

“…However, virus rebound in the Mississippi baby (3) and the Boston patients (4) pointed to the difficulty of achieving a cure/functional cure of HIV infection and the need to develop new strategies to reach this goal. Multiple limitations to the cure have been identified, including (i) rapid establishment of latently infected cells, (ii) residual viral replication in patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), which prevents proper reservoir characterization, and (iii) the existence of anatomic reservoirs (privileged sites of latency insufficiently penetrated by drugs) (5,6). Due to these limitations, it is generally agreed that a more feasible alternative to an HIV infection cure (i.e., complete eradication of HIV and HIV-infected cells from the body) may be a functional cure (i.e., control of HIV infection without complete HIV eradication: undetectable viremia without ART, no disease progression, no CD4 ϩ T-cell loss, and lack of HIV transmission) (6).…”

“…Multiple limitations to the cure have been identified, including (i) rapid establishment of latently infected cells, (ii) residual viral replication in patients receiving combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), which prevents proper reservoir characterization, and (iii) the existence of anatomic reservoirs (privileged sites of latency insufficiently penetrated by drugs) (5,6). Due to these limitations, it is generally agreed that a more feasible alternative to an HIV infection cure (i.e., complete eradication of HIV and HIV-infected cells from the body) may be a functional cure (i.e., control of HIV infection without complete HIV eradication: undetectable viremia without ART, no disease progression, no CD4 ϩ T-cell loss, and lack of HIV transmission) (6). This concept is supported by the observation that functional cure has been achieved in a fraction of patients that received long-term ART initiated during acute HIV infection (7).…”

Social medicine and sociology: the productiveness of antagonisms arising from maintaining disciplinary boundaries

“…As head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), she had been invited to talk to ASSHH about the place of the social sciences in the work of the IAS and in their campaign: Working Towards a Cure (Deeks et al, 2012). Her speech was structured to inform the audience of 'medical advancements' that had taken place over the last 30 years of HIV medicine and the 'social research' that had supplemented these 'achievements', and the continued need for this research.…”