HIV Subtype and Nef-Mediated Immune Evasion Function Correlate with Viral Reservoir Size in Early-Treated Individuals.

ABSTRACT: The HIV accessory protein Nef modulates key immune evasion and pathogenic functions, and its encoding gene region exhibits high sequence diversity. Given the recent identification of early HIV-specific adaptive immune responses as novel correlates of HIV reservoir size, we hypothesized that viral factors that facilitate the evasion of such responses-namely, Nef genetic and functional diversity-might also influence reservoir establishment and/or persistence. We isolated baseline plasma HIV RNA-derived nef clones from 30 acute/early-infected individuals who participated in a clinical trial of early combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) (<6 months following infection) and assessed each Nef clone's ability to downregulate CD4 and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I in vitro

SUBMITTER: Omondi FH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6401425 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature