Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Turning Discovery into Health
  • NIH Employee Intranet
  • Staff Directory
  • En Español

Site Menu

  • Home
  • Health Information
    • Health Care Providers & Facilities
    • Health Info Lines
    • HealthCare.gov
    • Science Education Resources
    • NIH Clinical Research Trials and You
    • Talking to Your Doctor

    More »

    Quick Links

    • MedlinePlus Health Info
    • NIH News in Health
    • Wellness Toolkits
  • Grants & Funding
    • Grants Home Page
    • Find Funding
    • Due Dates
    • How to Apply
    • About Grants
    • Policy & Compliance
    • Grants News/Blog
    • Contracts
    • Loan Repayment

    More »

    Quick Links

    • RePORT
    • eRA Commons
    • NIH Common Fund
  • News & Events
    • News Releases
    • Digital Media Kits
    • Media Resources
    • Media Contacts
    • Images and B-roll
    • Events
    • Social Media

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NIH News in Health
    • NIH Research Matters
    • NIH Record
  • Research & Training
    • Medical Research Initiatives
    • Science Highlights
    • Science Education
    • Research in NIH Labs & Clinics
    • Training Opportunities
    • Library Resources
    • Research Resources
    • Clinical Research Resources
    • Safety, Regulation and Guidance

    More »

    Quick Links

    • PubMed
    • Stem Cell Information
    • OppNet
    • NIDB
    • NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
  • Institutes at NIH
    • List of Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Office of the Director
    • Directors of NIH Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Institute and Center Contact Information

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NCI
    • NEI
    • NHLBI
    • NHGRI
    • NIA
    • NIAAA
    • NIAID
    • NIAMS
    • NIBIB
    • NICHD
    • NIDCD
    • NIDCR
    • NIDDK
    • NIDA
    • NIEHS
    • NIGMS
    • NIMH
    • NIMHD
    • NINDS
    • NINR
    • NLM
    • CC
    • CIT
    • CSR
    • FIC
    • NCATS
    • NCCIH
  • About NIH
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Jobs at NIH
    • Visitor Information
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Contact Us

    More »

    Quick Links

    • The NIH Director
    • The NIH Almanac
    • NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®
    • Impact of NIH Research
    • Science, Health, and Public Trust

You are here

Home » News & Events » News Releases

News Releases

Media Advisory

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

New insights into HIV latent cells yield potential cure targets

HIV-infected H9 T Cell Scanning electron micrograph of an HIV-infected H9 T cell.NIAID

What

In a presentation today at AIDS 2022, the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montreal, scientists with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC) and their collaborators described how their use of cutting-edge technology revealed new insights into cellular reservoirs of HIV and what those observations could mean for the next steps in HIV cure research. NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health.

An enhanced understanding of the HIV-infected, memory CD4+ T cells that persist over decades in individuals taking antiretroviral therapy has been a long-time goal of HIV cure researchers. However, technology limitations have made it difficult to isolate or analyze these individual cells in their natural state. As a result, scientists have been unable to determine whether the cells possess distinctive attributes that HIV-cure-directed therapies may exploit.

In the presentation, Eli Boritz, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Virus Persistence and Dynamics Section in the VRC Laboratory of Immunology, described NIAID’s long-standing collaboration with a bioengineering research group at the University of California, San Francisco. The researchers developed a custom microfluidic sorting technology termed Focused Interrogation of Cells by Nucleic Acid Detection and Sequencing (FIND-Seq). This technology defines gene expression patterns from rare cells harboring latent HIV by generating millions of single-cell reaction containers in the form of water-in-oil emulsions, in which messenger RNA capture and virus DNA detection can be performed sequentially while maintaining segregation among cells. The scientists applied the FIND-Seq technology to blood cells from six people with HIV who had begun taking ART while chronically infected and who had experienced more than one year of viral suppression. Using data produced by FIND-Seq, the scientists compared the gene expression patterns of HIV-infected memory CD4+ T cells to those of HIV-uninfected memory CD4+ T cells in the same individuals.

The researchers found clear differences between the HIV-infected CD4+ T cells and their uninfected counterparts, including gene expression patterns linked to the suppression of multiple steps in the HIV lifecycle and to cell survival and proliferation. According to the scientists, these results indicate that the HIV-infected memory CD4+ T-cell reservoir is a distinctive cell population that may be uniquely susceptible to specific targeted therapies. In this regard, the study reinforces recent interest among scientists in improving upon HIV cure strategies that are based on latency reversal by incorporating drugs that relieve blocks at multiple HIV lifecycle steps, and by combining these with agents that potentiate physiologic cell death.

Abstract Title

Transcriptional Programs of HIV Silencing and Cell Survival in HIV-Infected Memory CD4 T Cells Under Antiretroviral Therapy.

Who

Dr. Boritz is available to speak about the research presented at the AIDS 2022 meeting.

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

###

Institute/Center

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Contact

NIAID News Office
301-402-1663

Connect with Us

  • Subscribe to news releases
  • RSS Feed

Connect with Us

  • Contact Us
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • More Social Media from NIH

Footer

  • NIH Home
  • En Español
  • Site Map
  • Visitor Information
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Web Policies and Notices
  • NIH Website Archives
  • Freedom of Information Act
  • No Fear Act
  • HHS Vulnerability Disclosure
  • Office of Inspector General
  • USA.gov – Government Made Easy

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Back to Top