Grant: Project Grant

Antiretroviral therapy treatment (ART) has greatly prevented the clinical progression outcome of HIV infection by suppressing plasma virus levels to below the detection limit. However, ART does not cure because it does not eliminate the persistence of a small pool of infected CD4+ T cells (also known as latent reservoir) that harbour replication competent virus that can persist indefinitely in people living with HIV (PLWH)- leading to viral rebound when treatment is interrupted. The main immune cell that can kill HIV infected cells is called the cytotoxic CD8+ T cell or CTL. PLWH usually have low functionality of their CTLs, for various reasons. However, there are a few PLWH, called elite controllers who have such potent CTLs that they force the virus into a deeply latent state. We propose that if we can induce a similar 'state' in other PLWH, this would be a functional cure that would not require ARTs- a key step in helping eradicate HIV reservoir. Our study will use a state of the art techniques to determine whether we can make CTLs taken from PLWH, reduce or eradicate the reservoirs in the laboratory.