One of the key focus areas for the BC-CfE laboratory program is the pursuit of an effective, safe and scalable cure for HIV. While current treatments are highly effective and prevent viral transmission if taken correctly, copies of HIV persist in the body for an individual’s lifetime following infection. These copies are called “the HIV reservoir”. One of the biggest challenges HIV cure researchers must solve is how to eliminate these persistent HIV copies, which are genetically diverse and resilient to current treatments.
Recently, a BC-CfE paper was published which adds to existing evidence on the genetic diversity of the HIV reservoir. Lead author Bradley Jones, a PhD student at the BC-CfE, wrote the paper entitled ‘Genetic diversity, compartmentalization and age of HIV proviruses persisting in CD4+ T cell subsets during long-term combination antiretroviral therapy‘ which was published in the Journal of Virology this year. The research sought to better understand the genetics and diversity of HIV copies that persist within host CD4+ T cells in individuals receiving antiretroviral treatment over 10-20 years. The researchers used molecular evolutionary techniques to characterize the age, genetic diversity and distinctiveness of persisting HIV copies in different CD4+ T cell subsets.
The researchers found that each study participant had a unique “landscape” of persisting HIV populations, and that, there was no evidence to suggest that any particular CD4+ T cell subset harboured the longest-persisting, most genetically diverse HIV reservoir. This research highlights that a personalized medicine approach may be required if and when an effective HIV cure strategy is developed. The researchers are grateful to the participants, without whom this study would not have been possible.