German Centre for Infection Research HIV Translational Platform

Structure The DZIF HIV Translational Platform belongs to the HIV the Thematic Translational Units (TTUs) of the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), which is founded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The national, multi-centre structure of the DZIF bringing together selceted universities, university hospitals, and non-university research institutes and translational efforts focussing on distinct infectious diesease-related health problems are co-ordinated by the TTUs. The TTU HIV is located in six DZIF partner sites in Germany: Bonn-Cologne, Brunswick-Hannover, Gießen-Marburg-Langen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Munich. Mission and Objectives Prevention of HIV: The main tools for effective prevention include vaccines, microbicides, preventive therapy and induction of behavioral change. Currently, few groups in Germany have specific preclinical expertise in this area. This expertise needs to be further developed and integrated in the DZIF to be able to implement internationally competitive HIV vaccine and microbicide programmes. Long-term life with HIV: This challenge is equally relevant for the developing and developed world. DZIF researchers have made many internationally visible contributions to management of HIV infection in the past. They have extensive experience in clinical studies in the HIV field and have played a major role in the clinical development of new drugs for HIV therapy (e.g. maraviroc, raltegravir). They are also intensively involved in the establishment of clinical guidelines for management of HIV infection. HIV cure: Antiretroviral therapy can completely suppress HIV replication below the limit of detection for sustained periods of time, but cannot eradicate the virus from silent reservoirs. Accordingly, life-long therapy is needed and interruption of therapy always leads to resurgence of viral spread and disease. Several approaches have been suggested to eliminate silently infected cells or the HIV genomes integrated in these cells. These approaches are currently mostly at the stage of basic research or early preclinical development and need to be developed in the translational chain. While significant knowledge exists about the nature of silent reservoirs, the number and clonality of viral integration sites is currently largely unknown and needs to be further investigated to develop virus eradication strategies and therapies. The aim of the DZIF HIV Translational Platform is to comprehensively and collaboratively analyze the above mentioned aspects by using cohorts of HIV infected patients in different stages and with different courses of disease. These cohorts have been established by the participating partner sites, which will be coordinated and extended by the focus site in Bonn-Cologne. This study protocol is the framework and platform for future substudies.