Apoptosis-induced activation of HIV-1 in latently infected cell lines

Abstract

The results indicate that latent HIV-1 can sense when its host cell is undergoing apoptosis and responds by completing its replication cycle. The results may help explain why patients treated with cytotoxic regimens for bone marrow transplantation showed reductions in the reservoir of latently infected cells. The results also suggest that the mechanisms that HIV-1 uses to sense and respond to host cell apoptosis signals may represent helpful new targets for approaches to attack and deplete the long-lived reservoir of cells latently infected with HIV-1.