Selected Grantee Publications

Antibody-Mediated Depletion of Viral Reservoirs is Limited in SIV-Infected Macaques Treated Early With Antiretroviral Therapy

Swanstrom et al., Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2021.

https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI142421

Virus-specific strategies to target the latent HIV reservoir in individuals on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) have been limited by inefficient induction of viral protein expression. Researchers used rhesus macaques to investigate an antibody-mediated reservoir targeting strategy, targeting the CD4 molecule rather than a viral protein, to deplete potential viral target cells irrespective of infection status. Despite profound CD4⁺ T cell depletion in blood and lymph nodes, time to viral rebound following cART cessation was not delayed in anti-CD4 treated animals compared with controls, likely due to the limited antibody-mediated cell depletion that occurred in rectal tissue and lymphoid follicles. Supported by ORIP (R24OD010976), NCI, and NIAID.