Regulatory T Cells (T reg ) and HIV/AIDS: Summary of the September 7–8,2006 Workshop

A workshop entitled “Regulatory T cells (T_reg) and HIV/AIDS” was held in Cincinnati, OH, September 7–8, 2006. This workshop was the first completely dedicated to T_reg in HIV infection, and gathered investigators working on different aspects of T_reg biology, and on HIV pathogenesis. We report here the major topics of discussion of this workshop, the goal of which was to summarize what is known and not known about the role of T_reg in HIV immune responses and pathogenesis; and to foster discussion on the means of manipulating T_reg in HIV-infected subjects. Workshop participants also debated the research priorities in the field, which emerged as follows: (1) to arrive at a consensus on T_reg definition and to standardize assays aimed at characterizing T_reg number and function; (2) to study T_reg biology in tissues, notably in mucosal tissues, and at different stages of infection; (3) to examine T_reg function in vivo in animal models, as well as to test strategies to target or modulate T_reg cell function in these models; (4) to investigate the effect of viral factors on T_reg biology, and conversely to study whether T_reg activity affects the level of HIV replication; (5) to conduct longitudinal studies of T_reg number and function; and (6) to determine the effect of coinfections on T_reg biology.