BACH2-driven tissue resident memory programs promote HIV-1 persistence.

Transcription repressor BACH2 redirects short-lived terminally differentiated effector into long-lived memory cells. We postulate that BACH2-mediated long-lived memory programs promote HIV-1 persistence in gut CD4+ T cells. We coupled single-cell DOGMA-seq and TREK-seq to capture chromatin accessibility, transcriptome, surface proteins, T cell receptor, HIV-1 DNA and HIV-1 RNA in 100,744 gut T cells from ten aviremic HIV-1+ individuals and five HIV-1- donors.

HIV Clinical Providers' Awareness, Attitudes, and Willingness to Support Patient Outreach Efforts for HIV Cure-Directed Research in Philadelphia, United States.

Background: Ethical patient outreach is critical for engaging patients with HIV in HIV cure-directed research. We sought to examine HIV clinical providers' awareness of current HIV cure-directed research strategies investigated through the Martin Delaney Collaboratories (MDC) and providers' attitudes toward patient outreach for HIV cure-directed research and to identify opportunities for clinical provider education on MDC research strategies.

Methods: We conducted a 1-time, cross-sectional, web-based survey with 64 HIV clinical providers (physicians, physician assistants, and nurses) in Philadelphia.

Cognate antigen engagement induces HIV-1 expression in latently infected CD4 T cells from people on long-term antiretroviral therapy.

Despite antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV-1 persists in latently infected CD4 T cells, preventing a cure. Antigens drive the proliferation of infected cells, precluding latent reservoir decay. However, the relationship between antigen recognition and HIV-1 gene expression is poorly understood because most studies of latency reversal use agents that induce non-specific global T cell activation.

Pierre & Hutch (Euphorbiaceae) Extracts and Isolated Compounds Reverse HIV-1 Latency.

Background: Pierre & Hutch is a tropical tree that grows in West and Central Africa, used in ethnomedicine to treat cancer, diabetes, headaches, convulsions, urinary diseases, and inflammatory diseases. As other species have been observed to possess chemical compounds that target HIV latency-reversal, we hypothesized that this species may have similar properties.

Aim Of The Study: The identification of extracts and compounds of this species, which have HIV-1 latency-reversing activity in J-Lat T cell lines.

A high-throughput, microplate reader-based method to monitor HIV latency reversal in the absence of flow cytometry.

Unlabelled: J-Lat cells are derivatives of the Jurkat CD4+ T cell line that contain a non-infectious, inducible HIV provirus with a GFP tag. While these cells have substantially advanced our understanding of HIV latency, their use by many laboratories in low and middle-income countries is restricted by limited access to flow cytometry. To overcome this barrier, we describe a modified J-Lat assay using a standard microplate reader that detects HIV-GFP expression following treatment with latency-reversing agents (LRAs).