HIV Working Group

Robert Shapiro, Ph.D.
Principal Research Scientist, Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

“Early diagnosis and novel HIV treatment strategies for children: results from the EIT, Moso and Tatelo Studies in Botswana”
ABSTRACT: Children living with HIV are ideal candidates for strategies that may lead to post-treatment control following antiretroviral treatment (ART), and those treated from very early life may have unique features that are especially favorable for cure research. With early effective ART, the latent intact HIV reservoir is drastically reduced as the immune system matures through early life. Such children may have the potential for post-treatment control through the outright elimination of intact virus, or its elimination from encoding regions of the genome. This talk will focus on approaches to pediatric treatment and possible post-treatment control that include early diagnosis, early ART, and the use of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (bNAbs). The talk will review three recent clinical trials in Botswana: the EIT Study, the Moso Study, and the Tatelo Study. The talk will also address the challenges of performing pediatric cure research as well as the unique opportunities to understand avenues to cure offered by pediatric trials.