Immune Activation in Treated HIV Infection: Does It Still Matter?
Peter W. Hunt, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Experimental Medicine
University of California San Francisco, CA
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Peter Hunt is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Experimental Medicine at UCSF. His primary research focus is on the inflammatory consequences of HIV infection. His translational research program seeks to understand both the causes and consequences of persistent immune activation both in the presence and the absence of antiretroviral therapy. He collaborates extensively with a multi-disciplinary team of investigators to assess the impact of persistent immune activation on mortality and chronic diseases associated with aging as well as on the persistence of HIV in cellular reservoirs. He also conducts pilot clinical trials of novel immune-based interventions designed to decrease immune activation and recently completed a term as Chair of the Inflammation Committee of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. Dr. Hunt has also led a translational research program in Mbarara, Uganda, focused on the determinants of immune recovery during suppressive antiretroviral therapy in that setting and has helped develop a large mucosal immunology program at San Francisco General Hospital focused on the impact of HIV on gut-associated lymphoid tissue and the determinants of microbial translocation in HIV infection. In July, 2016, he also started a laboratory to identify the determinants of persistent adaptive immune defects in treated HIV infection, which likely contribute to infectious and neoplastic complications and may also serve as barriers to HIV cure.
At the completion of this educational session, learners will:
- Recognize that immune activation persists despite ART-mediated viral suppression in many HIV-infected individuals and that this process predicts the risk of morbidity and mortality.
- Know the drivers of inflammation that are thought to cause this process and the therapeutic approaches that are currently being investigated.
- Appreciate the role that lifestyle factors may play in contributing to immune activation.
This PRN CME activity is funded in part by unrestricted educational grants from:
Gilead Sciences; Janssen Therapeutics, a division of Janssen Products, LP; and Merck & Co.
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PRN Courses Page at the Clinical Education Initiative (CEI) web site. PRN and the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) jointly sponsor PRN enduring materials for CME, and provide them at no cost to the AIDS Institute of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for broadcast through the CEI. We thank the NYSDOH for making our CME programs available to a wider audience, and hope you will also browse the many other educational opportunities offered by the CEI.
