Majority of HIV persistence during ART due to infected cell proliferation: Study confirms biological mechanism responsible for latent HIV reservoirs; suggests strategies for a functional HIV cure

According to study findings published in Nature Communications, a majority of the HIV-infected cells that persist in HIV-infected patients even during suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) originated from cellular proliferation, not viral replication, reported ScienceDaily.

Based on the results, the authors believe reducing cellular proliferation could help to deplete the reservoir and potentially lead to a functional cure.

First author Dan Reeves said "we adapted tools to characterize the reservoir of HIV-infected cells more realistically, inferring the mechanism of generation from the proportions of unique and identical genetic signatures."

The study authors suggested that reducing proliferation of specific immune cells, CD4+ T cells, could greatly deplete HIV reservoirs and potentially lead to a functional HIV cure.

Possible approaches for depleting the infected cells might be gene editing, cellular immunotherapy or latency reversing agents, the news source said.

Meanwhile, senior author Josh Schiffer and colleagues are conducting a clinical trial to test whether the lymphocyte anti-proliferative drug mycophenolate mofetil could be effective at stopping the proliferation of HIV-infected immune cells in people undergoing ART.

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