Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4. In the search for control of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 HIV-1 infection without antiretroviral therapy, posttreatment controllers PTCs are models of HIV remission. This characterization was performed with single-genome amplification and deep sequencing. The proportions of intact and defective proviruses among the proviral pool in PTCs were not significantly different from those of other groups.
When looking at the quantities of proviruses per million peripheral blood mononuclear cells PBMCs , they had similar amounts of intact proviruses as other groups but smaller amounts of defective proviruses than CHIs, suggesting a role of these forms in HIV pathogenesis.
Two HICs but none of the PTCs harbored only proviruses with deletion in nef ; these attenuated strains could contribute to viral control in these participants. We show, for the first time, the presence of intact proviruses and low viral diversity in PTCs long after treatment interruption, as well as the absence of evolution of the proviral quasispecies in subsequent samples.
This reflects low residual replication over time. Further data are necessary to confirm these results. Knowing that proviruses are very diverse and most of them are defective in treated individuals, we aimed to characterize the HIV blood reservoirs of posttreatment controllers PTCs , rare models of drug-free remission, in comparison with spontaneous controllers and treated individuals. Furthermore, PTCs displayed low viral genetic diversity and no evolution of their reservoirs, indicating very low residual replication, despite the presence of intact proviruses.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 HIV-1 infection became a chronic disease in patients under long-term antiretroviral therapy ART to control viral replication. Nevertheless, in rare cases, viral replication remains controlled for several years after ceasing ART. In this context, current research on HIV remission aims at finding therapeutic alternatives that do not require the lifelong intake of ART.
