Although antiretroviral therapy does not eradicate latent HIV that resides in resting T cells, efforts are underway to determine how this latent HIV can be awakened. However, Ho et al. showed that the latent reservoir might be much larger — up to 60-fold — than previously estimated. The authors analysed non-induced proviral clones from patients treated with antiviral therapy and showed that over 10% had intact genomes and were capable of being transcriptionally active. The authors note this means that these viruses might become active in vivo, thus increasing the barrier that needs to be overcome to cure HIV.
References
Ho, Y-. C. et al. Replication-competent noninduced proviruses in the latent reservoir increase barrier to HIV-1 cure. Cell 155, 540–551 (2013)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harrison, C. A higher hurdle to eliminate HIV?. Nat Rev Drug Discov 13, 20 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4211
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4211