12th Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections, 22-25 February, Boston, 2005

18 April 2005. Related: Conference reports, Conference index, CROI 12 (Retrovirus) 2005.

Reports from the conference

As is customary for this scientific meeting, Retrovirus this year provided an opportunity for important research.

Abstracts from this meeting are posted to the conference website, and many pdf for poster presentations are also already online:
http://www.retroconference.org

There was a wealth of exciting data on new compounds with an indication to work against currently resistant HIV, and important overviews that this year are available as online webcasts, with slides.
http://www.retroconference.org/2005/Pages/webcasts.htm

Particularly recommended presentations include:

February 23, 2005

Plenary: Nevirapine and PMTCT

• Controversies in the use of nevirapine for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission – James McIntyre

Symposium: Chemokine Receptor Blockade: Bench to Bedside

• Preclinical development of chemokine receptor inhibitors – Donald E Mosier
• Clinical activity and efficacy trials of chemokine receptor inhibitors – Daniel Kuritzkes

Symposium: Heart and HAART

• Cardiovascular risk prediction in the general population – Jorge Plutzky
• Cardiovascular outcomes in HIV infection – Jens D Lundgren
• Managing cardiovascular risk and lipid disorders – Esteban Martinez

February 24, 2005

Plenary: Lipodystrophy

• Fitting the pieces of the puzzle – Peter Reiss

Symposium: Critical Paediatric Issues in Developing Countries

• Safer breastfeeding for babies born to HIV-positive mothers: part of the answer to a dilemma – Jean Humphrey
• Is early diagnosis of HIV infection feasible in resource-limited settings? – Christine Rouzioux
• Paediatric antiretroviral therapy: challenges and triumphs – Diana Gibb

Special Symposium: Transmitted HIV-1 Drug Resistance and Rapid Disease Progression

• Introductory remarks and summary of case report of recent infection by a multi-drug resistant, dual-tropic HIV-1 in association with rapid progression to AIDS – David Ho
• Variations in the natural history of HIV infection in the NIAID Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) – Stephen Gange
• Variations in the natural history of HIV seroconverters in US military cohorts – Matthew Dolan
• Transmission of drug resistant HIV: frequency, transmissibility, and fitness – Andrew Leigh Brown
• Public health aspects of the NYC case – Harold Jaffe

With over 900 studies and presentations we are only able to include a few reports in this issue of HTB. Further reports will follow in the next issue.

The conference is the focus of many online web reports which are also recommended.

Amongst the most useful include:

National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project – NATAP.
http://www.natap.org

The Body
http://www.thebody.org

HIV and Hepatitis.com
http://www.hivandhepatitis.com

Medscape
http://www.medscape.com

Clinical Care Options
http://www.clinicaloptions.com

Reports in this issue include:

• Developments in nevirapine use in MTCT reduction

• Mashi study – late breakers on breastfeeding

• Maternal health and infant mortality

• Paediatric care in lower income settings

• Tenofovir not linked to bone toxicity in children followed for one year

• Gut memory CD4 T cells implicated in a central role for HIV disease pathology: dramatic impact prior to seroconversion

• Case of multi-drug resistant (MDR) rapid progressor

• Case report of antibody reversion and negative viral load four-years after treatment discontinuation

• 24-week efficacy of TMC114 in PI-experienced patients

• Maturation inhibitor shows anti-HIV activity in single dose pilot study

• New antiretrovirals at 12th CROI

• Absolute risk is modest, but cumulative cardiovascular risk of HAART over five years is similar to ‘ever smoked’: new data on gender and age

• Omega-3 supplement effective to reduce triglycerides

• Entecavir is effective against 3TC-resistant hepatitis B

• Switch to tenofovir from AZT or d4T improves fat loss and improves lipid parameters compared to abacavir

• Continued use of a thymidine analogue may limit benefit from rosiglitazone when used to treat lipoatrophy

• Tenofovir is non-inferior to adefovir for the treatment of hepatitis B in HBV-HIV co-infected patients