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

Buzon, Maria J; Sun, Hong; Li, Chun; Shaw, Amy; Seiss, Katherine; Ouyang, Zhengyu; Martin-Gayo, Enrique; Leng, Jin et al. · Nat Med · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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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.

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