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Etemad B, Sun X, Li Y, Melberg M, Moisi D, Gottlieb R, Ahmed H, Aga E, Bosch RJ, Acosta EP, Yuki Y, Martin MP, Carrington M, Gandhi RT, Jacobson JM, Volberding P, Connick E, Mitsuyasu R, Frank I, Saag M, Eron JJ, Skiest D, Margolis DM, Havlir D, Schooley RT, Lederman MM, Yu XG, Li JZ. HIV post-treatment controllers have distinct immunological and virological features. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2218960120. [PMID: 36877848 PMCID: PMC10089217 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218960120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/08/2023] Open
Abstract
HIV post-treatment controllers (PTCs) are rare individuals who maintain low levels of viremia after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART). Understanding the mechanisms of HIV post-treatment control will inform development of strategies aiming at achieving HIV functional cure. In this study, we evaluated 22 PTCs from 8 AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) analytical treatment interruption (ATI) studies who maintained viral loads ≤400 copies/mL for ≥24 wk. There were no significant differences in demographics or frequency of protective and susceptible human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles between PTCs and post-treatment noncontrollers (NCs, n = 37). Unlike NCs, PTCs demonstrated a stable HIV reservoir measured by cell-associated RNA (CA-RNA) and intact proviral DNA assay (IPDA) during analytical treatment interruption (ATI). Immunologically, PTCs demonstrated significantly lower CD4+ and CD8+ T cell activation, lower CD4+ T cell exhaustion, and more robust Gag-specific CD4+ T cell responses and natural killer (NK) cell responses. Sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA) identified a set of features enriched in PTCs, including a higher CD4+ T cell% and CD4+/CD8+ ratio, more functional NK cells, and a lower CD4+ T cell exhaustion level. These results provide insights into the key viral reservoir features and immunological profiles for HIV PTCs and have implications for future studies evaluating interventions to achieve an HIV functional cure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Behzad Etemad
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
| | - Xiaoming Sun
- Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Yijia Li
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
| | - Meghan Melberg
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
| | - Daniela Moisi
- School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH44106
| | - Rachel Gottlieb
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
| | - Hayat Ahmed
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
| | - Evgenia Aga
- Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
| | | | - Edward P. Acosta
- School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL35233
| | - Yuko Yuki
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD21702
- Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD20814
| | - Maureen P. Martin
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD21702
- Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD20814
| | - Mary Carrington
- Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, Cambridge, MA02139
- Basic Science Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD21702
- Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD20814
| | - Rajesh T. Gandhi
- Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02114
| | | | - Paul Volberding
- School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA94143
| | | | - Ronald Mitsuyasu
- School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Ian Frank
- School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
| | - Michael Saag
- School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL35233
| | - Joseph J. Eron
- Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Daniel Skiest
- Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School - Baystate, Springfield, MA01199
| | - David M. Margolis
- Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | - Diane Havlir
- School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA94143
| | - Robert T. Schooley
- Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA92103
| | | | - Xu G. Yu
- Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, Cambridge, MA02139
| | - Jonathan Z. Li
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02139
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