Large number of rebounding/founder HIV variants emerge from multifocal infection in lymphatic tissues after treatment interruption.

ABSTRACT: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses HIV replication in most individuals but cannot eradicate latently infected cells established before ART was initiated. Thus, infection rebounds when treatment is interrupted by reactivation of virus production from this reservoir. Currently, one or a few latently infected resting memory CD4 T cells are thought be the principal source of recrudescent infection, but this estimate is based on peripheral blood rather than lymphoid tissues (LTs), the principal sites of virus production and persistence before initiating ART. We, therefore, examined lymph node (LN) and gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) biopsies from fully suppressed subjects, interrupted therapy, monitored plasma viral load (pVL), and repeated biopsies on 12 individuals as soon as pVL b

SUBMITTER: Rothenberger MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4364237 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature