Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2025;10(1):e186550. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.186550.
Abstract
HIV-1 reservoir cells persist indefinitely during suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) in individuals who acquire infection in adulthood, but little is known about the longitudinal evolution of viral reservoir cells during long-term ART started during early infancy. We studied 2 fraternal twins who acquired HIV-1 perinatally, started ART at week 10 after birth and remained on ART for 28 years. We observed that the frequency of genome-intact proviruses, determined by single-genome near–full-length proviral sequencing, declined by approximately 4,000- to 13,000-fold during this period, indicating enhanced decay rates of intact proviruses even after adjusting for dilution effects from somatic growth. Despite analyzing more than one billion PBMC after 28 years of ART in each participant, no intact proviruses were detected in 1 participant, and 1 intact provirus was isolated in the other. The longitudinal decline of defective proviruses in the 2 participants was more similar to proviral decay kinetics reported in individuals who started ART during adulthood; moreover, clonal sequence clusters were readily detectable for defective proviruses but not for intact proviruses after 28 years of ART in the 2 twins. Together, these data suggest decreased long-term stability and increased immunological vulnerability of intact proviruses during long-term ART started in early infancy.
Authors
Liliana C. Vela, Leah Carrere, Chloe Naasz, Sruthi Kalavacherla, Toong Seng Tan, Lesley de Armas, Ce Gao, Xu G. Yu, Savita G. Pahwa, Katherine Luzuriaga, Mathias Lichterfeld
This file is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. If you have not installed and configured the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your system.
Having trouble reading a PDF?
PDFs are designed to be printed out and read, but if you prefer to read them online, you may find it easier if you increase the view size to 125%.
Having trouble saving a PDF?
Many versions of the free Acrobat Reader do not allow Save. You must instead save the PDF from the JCI Online page you downloaded it from. PC users: Right-click on the Download link and choose the option that says something like "Save Link As...". Mac users should hold the mouse button down on the link to get these same options.
Having trouble printing a PDF?
- Try printing one page at a time or to a newer printer.
- Try saving the file to disk before printing rather than opening it "on the fly." This requires that you configure your browser to "Save" rather than "Launch Application" for the file type "application/pdf", and can usually be done in the "Helper Applications" options.
- Make sure you are using the latest version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader.
