Natural immunity to HIV infection

1 December 2010. Related: Basic science and immunology.

Richard Jefferys, TAG

The 1st November 2010 supplement to the Journal of Infectious Diseases features a suite of articles about individuals who remain HIV negative despite repeated exposure to the virus. [1]

The articles represent summaries of oral presentations given at the International Symposium on Natural Immunity to HIV that was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in November 2009.

The potential importance of studying highly exposed but seronegative individuals was emphasised by Gregg Gonsalves in a report on HIV basic science that TAG issued in 1993 [2]; seventeen years later, a concerted effort appears to be underway to better understand the phenomenon and glean lessons for designing biomedical prevention approaches (particularly vaccines).

There has already been a follow-up to the Winnipeg meeting: in July of this year, the National Institutes of Health sponsored a workshop in Rockville to further discuss the formation of an international research consortium (the workshop agenda is available online). [3]

Unfortunately the JID supplement is not open access, the content will become freely available after 12 months. However a report from the Winnipeg symposium that describes key presentations and outlines the consortium model was prepared by the International Center for Infectious Diseases and is posted to their website. [4]

Source: TAG basic science blog. (11 October 2010). http://tagbasicscienceproject.typepad.com/tags_basic_science_vaccin/2010/10/natural-immunity-to-hiv-infection.html

References:

1. Journal of Infectious Diseases: 1 November 2010.  http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jid/2010/202/S3
2. Gonsalves G. Basic research on HIV infection: a report from the front. TAG, June 1993. http://www.thebody.com/content/art1408.html
3. Workshop on HIV—Exposed and Resistant, 8–9 July 2010, Rockville, MD, USA.  http://www.blsmeetings.net/HIVExposedResistant/Agenda5.pdf
4. International Symposium on Natural Immunity to HIV. 15–17 November
   2009, Winnipeg, USA.  http://www.icid.com/isnih/pdf/presentations/ISNIH_Nov2009_%20Report%20FINAL.pdf