Edelfosine reactivates latent HIV-1 reservoirs in myeloid cells through activation of NF-κB and AP1 pathway

The persistence of latent HIV-1 reservoirs in cells presents a formidable challenge towards a complete HIV cure. Edelfosine is an FDA-approved investigational, anti-neoplastic drug. In this study, we aimed to investigate its role as a HIV-1 Latency Reversal Agent (LRA) using latency model cell lines. Our findings demonstrated that edelfosine reactivated latent HIV-1 viruses in myeloid cells in a dose and time-dependent manner. The mechanism of reactivation by edelfosine involved the activation of NF-κB and AP1 pathways in these cells. The reactivated virus was non-infectious. Delineating the mechanism of non-infectious virus production revealed an increased stabilization of cellular APOBEC3G protein as well as its enhanced incorporation into the released viruses. Thus, our study demonstrated for the first time an additional role of edelfosine in reactivation of latent HIV-1 and production of non-infectious virus. Our results have paved the way for repurposing of edelfosine as a novel HIV-1 latency reversal agent.