HIV DNA Subspecies Persist in both Activated and Resting Memory CD4 ⁺ T Cells during Antiretroviral Therapy

Abstract

It is generally believed that HIV is not cleared by extensive antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to the difficulty in eradicating the latent reservoir in resting CD4(+) T cells. New therapies that attempt to activate this reservoir so that immune or viral cytopathic mechanisms can remove those infected cells are currently being investigated. However, results obtained in this research indicate that activation, at least on some level, already occurs within this reservoir. Furthermore, we are the first to describe the dynamics of different HIV DNA species in resting and activated memory CD4+ T cell subsets that point to the role different levels of activation play in maintaining the HIV reservoir.