HIV-1 persistence in CD4+ T cells with stem cell-like properties

Nat Med. 2014 Feb;20(2):139-42. doi: 10.1038/nm.3445. Epub 2014 Jan 12.

Abstract

Cellular HIV-1 reservoirs that persist despite antiretroviral treatment are incompletely defined. We show that during suppressive antiretroviral therapy, CD4(+) T memory stem cells (TSCM cells) harbor high per-cell levels of HIV-1 DNA and make increasing contributions to the total viral CD4(+) T cell reservoir over time. Moreover, we conducted phylogenetic studies that suggested long-term persistence of viral quasispecies in CD4(+) TSCM cells. Thus, HIV-1 may exploit the stem cell characteristics of cellular immune memory to promote long-term viral persistence.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active
  • Base Sequence
  • Boston
  • CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / cytology
  • CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / virology*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Disease Reservoirs / virology*
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Flow Cytometry
  • HIV Infections / drug therapy
  • HIV Infections / virology*
  • HIV-1 / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Lymphoid Progenitor Cells / cytology*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Phylogeny*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Species Specificity
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Virus Latency*
  • env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / genetics

Substances

  • env Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus