RELATED ARTICLES HIV in patients on antiviral drugs

Diana Finzi, Monika Hermankova, Theodore Pierson, Lucy M. Carruth, Christopher Buck, Richard E. Chaisson, Thomas C. Quinn, Karen Chadwick, Joseph Margolick, Ronald Brookmeyer, Joel Gallant, Martin Markowitz, David D. Ho, Douglas D. Richman, Robert F. Siliciano ^*

The hypothesis that quiescent CD4⁺ T lymphocytes carrying proviral DNA provide a reservoir for human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was examined. In a study of 22 patients successfully treated with HAART for up to 30 months, replication-competent virus was routinely recovered from resting CD4⁺ T lymphocytes. The frequency of resting CD4⁺ T cells harboring latent HIV-1 was low, 0.2 to 16.4 per 10⁶ cells, and, in cross-sectional analysis, did not decrease with increasing time on therapy. The recovered viruses generally did not show mutations associated with resistance to the relevant antiretroviral drugs. This reservoir of nonevolving latent virus in resting CD4⁺ T cells should be considered in deciding whether to terminate treatment in patients who respond to HAART.

D. Finzi, M. Hermankova, T. Pierson, L. M. Carruth, C. Buck, R. E. Chaisson, T. C. Quinn, J. Gallant, R. F. Siliciano, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
K. Chadwick and J. Margolick, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
R. Brookmeyer, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
M. Markowitz and D. D. Ho, Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA.
D. D. Richman, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093, USA.
^*To whom correspondence should be addressed

Science, Volume 278, Number 5341 Issue of 14 November 1997, pp. 1295 - 1300.
©1997 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.