Estimating the contribution of the gut to plasma viral load in early SIV infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is significant debate about whether the gut plays a major role in viral replication and pathology in HIV infection. Here we aimed to estimate the contribution of the gut to the total virus observed in plasma, by comparing the frequency of different viral mutants in plasma and gut in SIV infection.

Results

We found that the maximum contribution of gut to plasma viral load estimated from rectal biopsy at day 28 post-infection had a median of 10%. The estimated values for individual animals ranged from nearly 100% to <3% in 4/14 animals. Importantly, these are maximum estimates, so that a value of 90%, for example, means that the real contribution may be anything between 0 and 90%, just not higher than 90%.We also studied the contribution of gut at the peak of

SUBMITTER: Petravic J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3854614 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature