HIV integration and T cell death: additional commentary.

Estaquier et al. provide commentary on our paper that elucidated the mechanism by which HIV-1 causes cell death in activated CD4 T lymphocytes. We showed that proviral DNA integration triggers DNA-PK dependent death signaling, leading to p53 phosphorylation and cell demise (Cooper A et al. Nature 498:376-379, 2013). They have raised several hypothetical points that we further clarify here.