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Recommendations for measuring HIV reservoir size in cure-directed clinical trials

Abstract

Therapeutic strategies are being clinically tested either to eradicate latent HIV reservoirs or to achieve virologic control in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. Attaining this goal will require a consensus on how best to measure the numbers of persistently infected cells with the potential to cause viral rebound after antiretroviral-therapy cessation in assessing the results of cure-directed strategies in vivo. Current measurements assess various aspects of the HIV provirus and its functionality and produce divergent results. Here, we provide recommendations from the BEAT-HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory on which viral measurements should be prioritized in HIV-cure-directed clinical trials.

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Fig. 1: The collective view of the BEAT-HIV Collaboratory on the priorities for measuring HIV reservoir size in blood and tissues during HIV-cure-related clinical trials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the NIH-funded BEAT-HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory to cure HIV-1 infection (1UM1Al126620). L.J.M. is also supported by NIH R01 AI065279, U01 AI065279, R01 DA048728, R01 DA049666, the Kean Family Professorship and the Philadelphia Foundation (Roberts I. Jacobs Fund). M.A.-M. is supported by NIH grants (R01 DK123733, R01 AG062383, R01NS117458, R21 AI143385, R21 AI129636 and R21 NS106970), The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) impact grant 109840-65-RGRL, W.W. Smith Charitable Trust grant A1901, The Campbell Foundation, Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience, Wistar Cancer Center Support grant P30 CA010815-49S2 and the Penn Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI 045008). M.J.B. is supported by The Miguel Servet program funded by the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III (CP17/00179). M.L. is supported by NIH grants AI117841, AI120008, AI124776, AI130005, AI122377 and AI135940. X.G.Y. is supported by NIH grants AI116228, AI078799, HL134539, AI125109 and DA047034. R.F.S. is supported by NIH grants UM1 AI126603, UM1 AI126620, UM1 AI12661 and P30 AI094189, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1115715). V.P. is supported by NIH grants R01 AI143567 and AI 124843. Y.-C.H. is supported by a Yale Top Scholar Award, a Rudolf J. Anderson Fellowship, NIH grants AI141009, DA047037, AI118402, P50 AI150464, P30 AI094189 and R37 AI14868, a W.W. Smith AIDS Research Grant, a Gilead AIDS Research Grant and a Gilead Research Scholar Grant. J.D.E. is supported by the NIH and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants 75N93019C00070, AI133706, AI110164, AI141258, AI143411-01A1, AI149672, CA206466, DK119945, INV-002704, OD011092-60 and OPPO1108533. D.R. is supported by the NIH CARE Martin Delaney Collaboratory (1UM1AI126619 0), the UCSD NIH CFAR (AI306214), the Department of Veterans Affairs and the James B. Pendleton Charitable Trust. J.L.R. is supported by NIH grants U19AI117950, U19AI149680 and UM1AI126620.

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Correspondence to Luis J. Montaner.

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B.J.H. and D.H. are employees of Merck & Co.; R.F.S. is an inventor on a patent application on the IPDA filed by Johns Hopkins University and licensed to AccelevirDx (R.F.S. holds no equity in AccelevirDx).

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Abdel-Mohsen, M., Richman, D., Siliciano, R.F. et al. Recommendations for measuring HIV reservoir size in cure-directed clinical trials. Nat Med 26, 1339–1350 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1022-1

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