Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy Duration on HIV-1 Infection of T Cells within Anatomic Sites

Abstract

HIV-1 persists as an integrated genome in CD4 + memory T cells during effective therapy, and cessation of current treatments results in resumption of viral replication. To date, the impact of antiretroviral therapy duration on HIV-infected CD4 + T cells and the mechanisms of viral persistence in different anatomic sites is not clearly elucidated. In the current study, we found that treatment duration was associated with a reduction in HIV-infected T cells. Our genetic analyses revealed that CD4 + effector memory T (T EM ) cells derived from the lymph node appeared to contain provirus that was genetically identical to plasma-derived virions. Moreover, we found that cellular proliferation counterbalanced the decay of HIV-infected cells throughout therapy. The contribution of cellular proliferation to viral persistence is particularly significant in T EM cells. Our study emphasizes the importance of HIV-1 intervention and provides new insights into the location of memory T cells infected with HIV-1 DNA, which is capable of contributing to viremia.