Combinatorial latency reactivation for HIV-1 subtypes and variants

JC Burnett, K Lim, A Calafi, JJ Rossi… - Journal of …, 2010 - Am Soc Microbiol
Journal of virology, 2010Am Soc Microbiol
The eradication of HIV-1 will likely require novel clinical approaches to purge the reservoir of
latently infected cells from a patient. We hypothesize that this therapy should target a wide
range of latent integration sites, act effectively against viral variants that have acquired
mutations in their promoter regions, and function across multiple HIV-1 subtypes. By using
primary CD4+ and Jurkat cell-based in vitro HIV-1 latency models, we observe that single-
agent latency reactivation therapy is ineffective against most HIV-1 subtypes. However, we …
Abstract
The eradication of HIV-1 will likely require novel clinical approaches to purge the reservoir of latently infected cells from a patient. We hypothesize that this therapy should target a wide range of latent integration sites, act effectively against viral variants that have acquired mutations in their promoter regions, and function across multiple HIV-1 subtypes. By using primary CD4+ and Jurkat cell-based in vitro HIV-1 latency models, we observe that single-agent latency reactivation therapy is ineffective against most HIV-1 subtypes. However, we demonstrate that the combination of two clinically promising drugs—namely, prostratin and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA)—overcomes the limitations of single-agent approaches and can act synergistically for many HIV-1 subtypes, including A, B, C, D, and F. Finally, by identifying the proviral integration position of latent Jurkat cell clones, we demonstrate that this drug combination does not significantly enhance the expression of endogenous genes nearest to the proviral integration site, indicating that its effects may be selective.
American Society for Microbiology