Koofhethile CK, Gao C, Chang C, Lian X, Shapiro R, Yu XG, Lichterfeld M, Kanki PJ. The HIV-2 proviral landscape is dominated by defective proviruses.
AIDS 2024;
38:309-316. [PMID:
37916471 PMCID:
PMC10842655 DOI:
10.1097/qad.0000000000003776]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 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: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/21/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Compared with HIV-1 infection, HIV-2 infection is associated with a slower progression to AIDS. Understanding the persistence of HIV-2 infection might inform the mechanisms responsible for differences in the pathogenicity of HIV-2 versus HIV-1.
METHODS
In this study, we analyzed the genetic composition of the proviral reservoir in archived blood samples collected from 13 untreated HIV-2-infected adults from Senegal. We used single-genome, near-full-length individual proviral sequencing (FLIP-Seq) to assess the relative frequency of intact and defective proviruses.
RESULTS
Ten out of 13 (77%) study participants demonstrated virologic suppression (<90 HIV RNA copies/ml) while the remaining 3 (23%) had detectable HIV RNA. We obtained 363 proviral sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the 13 study participants. Within these sequences, 342 (94%) defective proviruses were detected. Twenty-one (6%) intact proviruses were detected from three study participants, with one study participant displaying a large clone consisting of 16 genome-intact sequences.
CONCLUSION
This data suggests that similar to HIV-1 infection, the proviral landscape of HIV-2 is dominated by defective proviruses.
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