A study of 400 HIV-positive individuals undergoing antiretroviral therapy finds that an assay is capable of detecting intact proviruses, which are outnumbered by defective proviruses but able to revive viral replication if therapy is stopped, at higher frequencies than in previous assays, providing insight into the amount of intact latent virus in HIV-infected individuals; latent HIV proviruses are significant barriers to cure, according to the authors.
Article #20-06816: "Intact proviral DNA assay analysis of large cohorts of people with HIV provides a benchmark for the frequency and composition of persistent proviral DNA," by Francesco R. Simonetti et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Robert F. Siliciano, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; e-mail: rsiliciano@jhmi.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences