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CELL LINES CARRYING LATENT HIV
Background: Ongoing combination antiretroviral therapy can control the replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and delay the progression of AIDS. However, despite the complete suppression of detectable viremia in many patients during treatment, viremia reemerges rapidly after interruption of treatment, consistent with the existence of latent viral reservoirs. The presence of latent reservoirs has prevented the eradication of HIV from infected patients successfully treated with antiretroviral therapy. Knowledge of the mechanism by which the latent state is established, which is essential to its elimination, is poorly understood, partly because of the lack of an in vitro model. Prior to this, all stable cell lines in which HIV was latent carried a defective HIV.
Description: Gladstone researchers have created model stable cell lines that harbor a latent, non-defective HIV provirus linked to a readily selectable, green fluorescent protein marker. The latency of infection can be broken and the virus activated by several known categories of chemicals. Purposeful activation and elimination of the proviruses that remain latent following treatment with combination antiretroviral therapy in patients would be one more giant step down the road to curing the scourge of AIDS.
Applications:
- To screen drugs for the identification of agents that activate latent HIV infections to combat the problem of latent reservoirs in HIV-infected individuals.
- To conduct further research into the mechanism of HIV transcriptional silence during latency, with the ultimate goal being to eliminate latent infections in HIV patients.
Reference: 2002-174
Gladstone Contact:
Caryl Cachola
Telephone: 415-734-2082  Tell a friend
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