Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cadena, Anthony M
• Ventura, John D
• Abbink, Peter
• Borducchi, Erica N
• Tuyishime, Hubert
• Mercado, Noe B
• Walker-Sperling, Victoria
• Siamatu, Mazuba
• Liu, Po-Ting
• Chandrashekar, Abishek
• Nkolola, Joseph P
• McMahan, Katherine
• Kordana, Nicole
• Hamza, Venous
• Bondzie, Esther A
• Fray, Emily
• Kumar, Mithra
• Fischinger, Stephanie
• Shin, Sally A
• Lewis, Mark G
• Siliciano, Robert F
• Alter, Galit
• Barouch, Dan H

Titel

Persistence of viral RNA in lymph nodes in ART-suppressed SIV/SHIV-infected Rhesus Macaques

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2021-03, Vol.12 (1), p.1474-1474, Article 1474

Ort / Verlag

England: Nature Publishing Group

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The establishment of a long-lived viral reservoir is the key obstacle for achieving an HIV-1 cure. However, the anatomic, virologic, and immunologic features of the viral reservoir in tissues during antiretroviral therapy (ART) remain poorly understood. Here we present a comprehensive necroscopic analysis of the SIV/SHIV viral reservoir in multiple lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues from SIV/SHIV-infected rhesus macaques suppressed with ART for one year. Viral DNA is observed broadly in multiple tissues and is comparable in animals that had initiated ART at week 1 or week 52 of infection. In contrast, viral RNA is restricted primarily to lymph nodes. Ongoing viral RNA transcription is not the result of unsuppressed viral replication, as single-genome amplification and subsequent phylogenetic analysis do not show evidence of viral evolution. Gag-specific CD8+ T cell responses are predominantly observed in secondary lymphoid organs in animals chronically infected prior to ART and these responses are dominated by CD69+ populations. Overall, we observe that the viral reservoir in rhesus macaques is widely distributed across multiple tissue sites and that lymphoid tissues act as a site of persistent viral RNA transcription under conditions of long-term ART suppression.