Longitudinal Genetic Characterization Reveals That Cell Proliferation Maintains a Persistent HIV Type 1 DNA Pool During Effective HIV Therapy

© 2015 The Author. Background. The stability of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reservoir and the contribution of cellular proliferation to the maintenance of the reservoir during treatment are uncertain. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of HIV-1 in T-cell subsets in different tissue compartments from subjects receiving effective antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methods. Using single-proviral sequencing, we isolated intracellular HIV-1 genomes derived from defined subsets of CD4+ T cells from peripheral blood, gut-associated lymphoid tissue and lymph node tissue specimens from 8 subjects with virologic suppression during long-term ART at 2 time points (time points 1 and 2) separated by 7-9 months. Results. DNA integrant frequencies were stable over time (