Minh Ha Ngo, Joshua Pankrac, Ryan C Y Ho, Emmanuel Ndashimye, Rahul Pawa, Renata Ceccacci, Tsigereda Biru, Abayomi S Olabode, Katja Klein, Yue Li, Colin Kovacs, Robert Assad, Jeffrey M Jacobson, David H Canaday, Stephen Tomusange, Samiri Jamiru, Aggrey Anok, Taddeo Kityamuweesi, Paul Buule, Ronald M Galiwango, Steven J Reynolds, Thomas C Quinn, Andrew D Redd, Jessica L Prodger, Jamie F S Mann, Eric J Arts
To date, an affordable, effective treatment for an HIV-1 cure remains only a concept with most "latency reversal" agents (LRAs) lacking specificity for the latent HIV-1 reservoir and failing in early clinical trials. We assessed HIV-1 latency reversal using a multivalent HIV-1-derived virus-like particle (HLP) to treat samples from 32 people living with HIV-1 (PLWH) in Uganda, US and Canada who initiated combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) during chronic infection. Even after 5 to 20 years on stable cART, HLP could target CD4+ T cells harboring latent HIV-1 reservoir resulting in 100-fold more HIV-1 release into culture supernatant than by common recall antigens, and 1000-fold more than by chemotherapeutic LRAs...
March 6, 2024: Emerging Microbes & Infections