Natural controlled HIV infection: preserved HIV-specific immunity despite undetectable replication competent virus.

Long-term non-progressive HIV infection, characterized by low but detectable viral load and stable CD4 counts in the absence of antiviral therapy, is observed in about 5% of HIV-infected patients. Here we identified four therapy naïve individuals who are strongly seropositive for HIV-1 but who lack evidence of detectable HIV p24 antigen, plasma RNA, and proviral DNA in routine diagnostic testing. With an ultrasensitive PCR, we established that frequencies of pol proviral DNA sequences were as low as 0.

Sensitivity of primary R5 HTV-1 to inhibition by RANTES correlates with sensitivity to small-molecule R5 inhibitors.

In approximately 50% of HIV-1 subtype B-infected individuals, progression to AIDS is preceded by the emergence of CXCR4-using (X4) variants, whereas the rest progress to AIDS in the presence of CCR5-using (R5) variants only. In a previous study, we showed that during disease progression in the presence of R5 variants only, HIV-1 variants emerge with a decreased sensitivity to inhibition by RANTES, a natural ligand of CCR5 that inhibits cellular entry of R5 variants. This observation was of potential clinical relevance as HIV-1 small-molecule R5 entry inhibitors are a new class of drugs that, in analogy to RANTES, target the binding and subsequent entry of HIV into the target cell.

Low levels of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 DNA in high-risk seronegative men.

We detected human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) DNA at very low levels in sequential peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples of five out of six high-risk, seronegative, homosexual men and five out of five individuals 7.8 to 1.6 years prior to seroconversion.