Clonally expanded CD4+ T cells can produce infectious HIV-1 in vivo

Clonally expanded CD4+ T cells can produce infectious HIV-1 in vivo [1]

Reservoirs of infectious HIV-1 persist despite years of combination antiretroviral therapy and make curing HIV-1 infections a major challenge. Most of the proviral DNA resides in CD4+T cells. Some of these CD4+T cells are clonally expanded; most of the proviruses are defective. It is not known if any of the clonally expanded cells carry replication-competent proviruses. We report that a highly expanded CD4+ T-cell clone contains an intact provirus. The highly expanded clone produced infectious virus that was detected as persistent plasma viremia during cART in an HIV-1–infected patient who had squamous cell cancer. Cells containing the intact provirus were widely distributed and significantly enriched in cancer metastases. These results show that clonally expanded CD4+T cells can be a reservoir of infectious HIV-1.

Original Source [2]

Publication Date:

16/02/2016

Author(s): Francesco R. Simonetti [3], Michele D. Sobolewski [4], Elizabeth Fyne & et al [5]

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [6]

Vol:

113

Issue:

pp:

1883–1888

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