Description
People in remission of HIV infection have benefited from therapies that limited the size of viral reservoir, contributing to preventing post-treatment rebound of viremia. Early control of this reservoir, limitation of pharmacological sanctuaries and residual replication that can be improved by direct antiviral effects are among the key scientific challenges to make remission a reality for a majority of people with HIV. Finding how we can better hit the target requires whole body understanding of viral/host/drugs interactions. Achieving sufficient drug levels in tissue hosting reservoir cells or with low level of virus production is certainly an important stake for therapeutic improvement. This should be combined by a better understanding of repertoire of infected cells and their distribution in the host. Using pharmacological and in vivo whole body imaging approaches, this project aims at characterizing the diffusion of antiretroviral drugs into different tissues and to assess their concentration levels in cells targeted by HIV, including monocyte/macrophages, dendritic cells and subsets of CD4+ T cells. This information will be used to optimize newly developed antiretroviral combinations
