HIV-1 latency and virus production from unintegrated genomes following direct infection of resting CD4 T cells

摘要

BackgroundHIV-1 integration is prone to a high rate of failure, resulting in the accumulation of unintegrated viral genomes (uDNA) in vivo and in vitro. uDNA can be transcriptionally active, and circularized uDNA genomes are biochemically stable in non-proliferating cells. Resting, non-proliferating CD4 T cells are prime targets of HIV-1 infection and latently infected resting CD4 T cells are the major barrier to HIV cure. Our prior studies demonstrated that uDNA generates infectious virions when T cell activation follows rather than precedes infection.