Acute HIV and HIV Reservoirs in the CNS: Implications for Long-term Outcomes and HIV Cure
Serena S. Spudich, MD, MA
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Division Chief, Neurological Infections and Global Neurology
Yale University, New Haven, CT
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Serena Spudich is Associate Professor of Neurology and Chief, Division of Neurological Infections and Global Neurology at Yale. Dr Spudich earned her medical degree from UCSF, pursued residency training in internal medicine at UW, neurology at Harvard, and fellowships at Harvard and UCSF. Her clinical and translational research explores HIV in the nervous system, focusing on effects of acute HIV infection, antiretroviral treatment, and HIV cure strategies on HIV pathogenesis and persistence in the central nervous system. She collaborates with colleagues of multiple disciplines in clinical studies in urban centers in the United States and in international settings, exploring questions of CNS inflammation, injury, and compartmentalization of HIV. She was the first neuroscientist elected to the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) HIV Reservoirs and Eradication Transformative Science Group, currently serves as the Chair of the ACTG Neurology Collaborative Science Group, and co-leads multiple NIH-funded projects addressing the pathobiology of NeuroHIV. She cares for HIV-infected patients with neurological disorders in the Nathan Smith HIV Clinic at Yale.
At the completion of this educational session, learners will:
- Understand that HIV is universally detected in the central nervous system (CNS) in the absence of treatment, beginning in acute infection.
- Be aware of the concept of HIV compartmentalization, wherein distinct HIV sequences can replicate in different tissue compartments, including the CNS.
- Know that treatment with antiretroviral therapy greatly reduces levels of HIV RNA and inflammatory markers in the CNS.
- Appreciate that some individuals with well-treated HIV on antiretroviral therapy have persistent inflammation or low level virus in the CNS, suggesting a possible reservoir in the brain compartment.
This PRN CME activity is funded in part by unrestricted educational grants from:
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co, and ViiV Healthcare.
