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Decay Rates of Cell-Associated HIV-1 DNA Correlate with Residual Viral Replication in Patients Treated during Primary HIV-1 Infection S. YERLY*, T. V. PERNEGER, S. VORA, B. HIRSCHEL, and L. PERRIN. AIDS Ctr., Geneva Univ. Hosp., Switzerland Patients with primary HIV-1 infection (PHI) respond well to HAART and therefore permit to measure the clearance of residual HIV-1 infection. We assessed using highly sensitive virologic assays (detection limit 3 copies) plasma viremia, cell-associated RNA and DNA levels in 15 PHI patients treated for 24-33 months. Cell-associated RNA persisted for more than 2 years in lympho-monocytes of 12 patients despite sustained viremia below 3 copies/ml. Similar levels of cell-associated RNA and DNA were observed in blood and in lymph nodes after 1 year of therapy. Decay rate of cell-associated DNA showed marked inter-individual differences with half-life varying from 2.3 months to infinity (mean, 6.6 months). DNA decay rate was highly correlated with mean cell-associated RNA measured in blood between 6 and 33 months of treatment (r = 0.77, P = 0.001) and in lymph nodes (r = 0.62, P = 0.02). Baseline cell-associated DNA was the best predictor of viral activity markers (viremia, cell-associated DNA and RNA). In conclusion, these data indicate that HIV-1 replication persists in most aviremic patients treated at the time of PHI and that the extent of inhibition of HIV-1 replication in both blood and lymph nodes is associated with the decay rate of HIV-1 infected cells. Key Words: cell-associated DNA, half-life, residual replication |
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© 7th
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, |