Publications by authors named "H Imamichi"
A subset of antiretroviral therapy-treated persons with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), referred to as immunological nonresponders (INRs), fails to normalize CD4+ T-cell numbers. In a case-control study involving 26 INRs (CD4 < 250 cells/µL) and 25 immunological responders (IRs; CD4 ≥ 250 cells/µL), we evaluated the potential contribution of transcriptionally competent defective HIV-1 proviruses to poor CD4+ T-cell recovery. Compared to the responders, the INRs had higher levels of cell-associated HIV RNA (P = .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - Current HIV vaccines aimed at boosting CD8 T cells haven't effectively controlled the virus after infection.
- - Research shows that the cytotoxic ability of vaccine-induced CD8 T cells is lower than in those who naturally control HIV, due to insufficient degranulation when facing low levels of antigens from infected cells.
- - The study indicates that the polyclonal nature of the vaccine-induced T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire limits their effectiveness, suggesting that better CD8 T cell responses might need vaccines that promote stronger clonal selection of TCRs.
Objectives: People with HIV-1 (PWH) on effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) continue to exhibit chronic systemic inflammation, immune activation, and persistent elevations in markers of HIV-1 infection [including HIV-DNA, cell-associated HIV-RNA (CA HIV-RNA), and antibodies to HIV-1 proteins] despite prolonged suppression of plasma HIV-RNA levels less than 50 copies/ml. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that nonreplicating but transcriptionally and translationally competent 'defective' HIV-1 proviruses may be one of drivers of these phenomena.
Design: A combined cohort of 23 viremic and virologically suppressed individuals on ART were studied.
Motivation: The existence of quasispecies in the viral population causes difficulties for disease prevention and treatment. High-throughput sequencing provides opportunity to determine rare quasispecies and long sequencing reads covering full genomes reduce quasispecies determination to a clustering problem. The challenge is high similarity of quasispecies and high error rate of long sequencing reads.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Possible human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 clearance has rarely been reported. In this study, we describe a unique case of an HIV-positive, combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)-experienced woman with prior acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who has not experienced viral rebound for over 12 years since discontinuing cART.
Methods: Leukapheresis, colonoscopy, and lymph node excision were performed for detailed examination of virologic (including HIV reservoir) and immunologic features.