Kinetics of response in lymphoid tissues to antiretroviral therapy of HIV-1 infection

Winston Cavert, Daan W. Notermans, Katherine Staskus, Stephen W. Wietgrefe, Mary Zupancic, Kristin Gebhard, Keith Henry, Zhi Qiang Zhang, Roger Mills, Hugh McDade, Jaap Goudsmit, Sven A. Danner, Ashley T. Haase, C. M. Schuwirth, N. Zupancic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

512 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In lymphoid tissue, where human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) is produced and stored, three-drug treatment with viral protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors markedly reduced viral burden. This was shown by in situ hybridization and computerized quantitative analysis of serial tonsil biopsies from previously untreated adults. The frequency of productive mononuclear cells (MNCs) initially diminished with a half-life of about 1 day. Surprisingly, the amount of HIV-1 RNA in virus trapped on follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) decreased almost as quickly. After 24 weeks, MNCs with very few copies of HIV-1 RNA per cell were still detectable, as was proviral DNA; however, the amount of FDC-associated virus decreased by ≤3.4 log units. Thus, 6 months of potent therapy controlled active replication and cleared >99.9 percent of virus from the secondary lymphoid tissue reservoir.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)960-964
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume276
Issue number5314
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 May 1997

Keywords

  • AMC wi-buiten

Cite this