What is it about?
The process of HIV-1 latency is multifactorial and involves several molecular pathways that are still being studied. This study reviews HIV-1 latency as well as its therapeutic implication.
Featured Image
Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The latency of resting HIV-1 in CD4+ T cells is the obstacle to complete destruction of the virus in patients that have been given highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This latency occurs early during acute infection but remains silent in the host cells; however, it is still capable of making infectious proviruses if antiviral therapy is stopped. The goal of HAART therapy is to reduce the replication levels of HIV-1 to undetectable levels in the serum of infected individuals. HIV-1 therapy involves the use of multiple drugs because of the ability of the virus to easily acquire drug resistance to an inhibitor. Resistance develops due to the diversity of the HIV-1 genome within several individuals. Gene therapy approaches have been shown to be somewhat safer but have not been proven yet in human models.
Perspectives
Currently, the treatment of HIV-1 infection involves the use of HAART, but this method does not completely eradicate the virus from infected individuals. Recent studies have identified the long-lived reservoirs of HIV-1 which contribute to the persistence of the virus in patients, despite treatment with antiretroviral therapy. A major goal in the field of HIV research is to identify a safe and effective cure for the millions of people living with HIV around the world. A cost-effective strategy for limiting the spread of the virus and eliminating lifelong therapy can be achieved when infected individuals can be permanently cured. It is only through deeper knowledge that would make it possible to discover effective combination therapies that could completely eradicate latent reservoirs in infected patients; hence, leading to a complete cure for HIV-1 infected patients.
Dr Adekunle Sanyaolu
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Mechanism of HIV-1 Latency and Therapeutic Implication, Madridge Journal of Immunology, February 2019, Madridge Publishers, LLC,
DOI: 10.18689/mjim-1000118.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
