Shocking HIV out of hiding: Where are we with clinical trials of latency reversing agents?

Abstract

Purpose of review: To provide an overview of the initial experiences with the use of latency-reversing agents (LRAs) in clinical trials in HIV and to discuss and contrast results arising from these studies. Recent findings: Although the clinical administration of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) and disulfiram to HIVinfected individuals on antiretroviral therapy significantly increased cell-associated HIV RNA in CD4+ T cells and in some cases plasma HIV RNA, this did not reduce the frequency of latently infected cells in blood. Potential reasons for this include insufficient potency in latency reversal, lack of virus or immunemediated cytolysis of virus-expressing cells and/or a high ..