[April 1] The 14th IRCMS Seminar, "New insights into protective immunity in infant HIV-1 and adult HIV-2 infection".

March 24 2016

We'll hold the 14th IRCMS Seminar as following details. We hope to see many of you at the seminar.

Date:       Friday, April 1, 2016

Time:      16:10-17:10

Venue:    2F Seminar Room, Center for AIDS Research (CAIDS)

Lecturer: Professor Sarah L Rowland-Jones, M.D., Ph.D.

               Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

Title:       New insights into protective immunity in infant HIV-1 and adult HIV-2 infection

Abstract:

     Progress towards an effective vaccine against HIV has been hampered by a limited understanding of protective immunity towards the virus. We have studied HIV-2 infection as a model for effective control of HIV in humans: whilst HIV-2 can cause AIDS that is clinically indistinguishable from HIV-1, up to 40% of infected people maintain long-term viral control  and have a normal life expectancy. I will present recent data about the T-cell response to HIV-2 in viral controllers and also discuss the role of host restriction factors from the TRIM family of proteins in HIV-2 infection. Infants with untreated HIV infection progress rapidly and 50% will die by the age of 2 years, which has led to speculation that the T-cell response to HIV is functionally impaired in infants. Recent data on viral evolution from a historic cohort of HIV+ mother-infant pairs will be presented that shows that T-cell responses exert selection pressure on the virus from early in infection, but this only occurs in infants with little evidence of immune suppression.