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. 2016 Aug;22(8):839-50.
doi: 10.1038/nm.4108. Epub 2016 Jul 11.

International AIDS Society global scientific strategy: towards an HIV cure 2016

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International AIDS Society global scientific strategy: towards an HIV cure 2016

Steven G Deeks et al. Nat Med. 2016 Aug.

Abstract

Antiretroviral therapy is not curative. Given the challenges in providing lifelong therapy to a global population of more than 35 million people living with HIV, there is intense interest in developing a cure for HIV infection. The International AIDS Society convened a group of international experts to develop a scientific strategy for research towards an HIV cure. This Perspective summarizes the group's strategy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Cases of post-treatment control and resission
Viral rebound following cessation of ART usually occurs within 2–3 weeks. In some circumstances viral rebound has been significantly delayed in the setting of stem cell transplantation (Boston patients) or very early ART in an infant (Mississippi child). In some individuals, long term post treatment control (PTC) off ART has been achieved. In these PTC, ART was nearly always initiated in acute infection and virus is usually detected at low levels in plasma. Timothy Brown remains the only HIV-infected individual off ART with no virus detected in blood or tissue. He received a stem cell transplant from a donor who was CCR5D32 negative and remains off ART for over 7 years.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Mechanisms that maintain HIV latency in resting CD4+ T-cells
There are multiple blocks to viral production in latently infected resting CD4+ T-cells including the site of integration (1), epigenetic silencing (2), lack of cellular transcription factors (3), incomplete elongation of transcripts (4), nuclear retention of transcripts (5) and micro RNAs limiting translation of viral proteins (6). TCR = T cell receptor; TF = transcription factors; co-Act = co-activators; MS = multiply spliced; US = unspliced; miRNA = microRNA.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Using targeted nucleases against HIV
Targeted nucleases, such as zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9, provide more precise methods of gene therapy. They create site-specific DNA breaks, whose subsequent repair by the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway can be exploited to disrupt a gene, such as CCR5, or even an integrated HIV genome. Alternatively, repair can occur through homologous recombination, and a co-introduced DNA homology template can be designed to create small mutations in host genes, or direct the site-specific insertion of an anti-HIV gene.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Assays used to quantify HIV persistence on ART
The frequency of cells that produce infectious virus is only a subset of cells that are infected with intact (highlighted in a red line) and defective genomes (total pool of infected cells). US = unspliced; MS = multiply spliced; QVOA = quantitative viral outgrowth assay; MVOA = murine viral outgrowth assay

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