Initial productive and latent HIV infections originate in vivo by infection of resting T cells.

ABSTRACT: Productively infected cells are generally thought to arise from HIV infection of activated CD4+ T cells, and these infected activated cells are thought to be a recurring source of latently infected cells when a portion of the population transitions to a resting state. We discovered and report here that productively and latently infected cells can instead originate from direct infection of resting CD4+ T cell populations in lymphoid tissues in Fiebig I, the earliest stage of detectable HIV infection. We found that direct infection of resting CD4+ T cells was correlated with the availability of susceptible target cells in lymphoid tissues largely restricted to resting CD4+ T cells in which expression of pTEFb enabled productive infection, and we documented persistence of HIV-producing restin

SUBMITTER: Wietgrefe SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10645380 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature