Grant: CIHR Fellowship

HIV remains a formidable global health challenge, affecting millions of people around the world. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) can successfully suppress viral replication, it is not able to cure the infection. This highlights the urgent need for the development of a definitive HIV cure. One of the main challenges in curing HIV is the formationof the viral reservoir, a pool of infected cells where HIV persists despite treatment, causing viral viremia rebound if ART is interrupted. The present project aims to investigate how and where this reservoir is established during early infection. The hypothesis of this project, is that specific viral characteristics play a role in the establishment of HIV latency. To test this hypothesis, this research project has two main objectives: 1) Identify the types of cells in the blood and lymph nodes that either harbour deeply hidden (latent) or actively replicating HIV. 2) Determine which viral characteristics help the virus to form the reservoir and avoid being eliminated by the immune system. Using paired blood and lymph nodes samples from the RV254/SEARCH010 study, a unique cohort of individuals treated at very early stages of infection, this research will fill important gaps in our understanding of how the HIV reservoir is formed. The findings could lead to development of new strategies to clear the virus from the body, which would not only advance the fight against HIV but also have a big impact on the economies of countries providing long-term HIV treatment and improve the lives of people living with HIV.