Diversity and Compartmentalization of Persistent HIV-1 Reservoirs under Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy

Abstract

Buzón MJ, Codoñer FM, Frost SD et al. Deep molecular characterization of HIV-1 dynamics under suppressive HAART. PLoS Pathog. 7(10), E1002314 (2011). Understanding the nature of persistent HIV-1 reservoirs in patients on suppressive antiretroviral therapy is important in order to establish a functional cure for AIDS. Intensification protocols targeting viral integrase have been used to probe the persistent reservoirs. Here, Buzón et al. longitudinally analyzed the genotypes of HIV-1 episomal and integrated DNA samples in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by deep sequencing. Statistical analyses indicated that episomal and integrated DNA samples encompass two different genetic populations, and these two DNA forms may originate from different compartments. As the first report on compartmentalization between episomal cDNA and integrated HIV-1 DNA genomes, this paper provides an improved understanding of the population structure and compartmentalization of replication-competent virus under suppressive antiretroviral therapy.