Selected Grantee Publications

Persistence of Viral RNA in Lymph Nodes in ART-suppressed SIV/SHIV-Infected Rhesus Macaques

Cadena et al., Nature Communications. 2021.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21724-0 

The long-lived viral reservoir is a key obstacle to curing HIV/AIDS, yet the features of that reservoir during antiretroviral therapy (ART) remain poorly understood. Researchers undertook a comprehensive analysis of the SIV/SHIV reservoir in multiple lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues from SIV/SHIV-infected rhesus macaques suppressed with ART for one year. Their findings support a model in which the tissue viral reservoir is rapidly and broadly seeded early during acute infection. Viral RNA persists lymphoid tissues despite a long period of suppressive ART. Therefore, viral latency does not appear to be universally transcriptionally silent; the reservoir may include a spectrum of latency depths. Supported by ORIP (R01OD024917) and NIAID.