HIV-1 transcriptional activity during frequent longitudinal sampling in aviremic patients on antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

Background: HIV-1 transcription during suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART) is not well understood. This is problematic as latency-reactivating agent-based HIV-1 eradication trials utilize changes in viral transcription as an efficacy biomarker. Methods: We conducted an observational cohort study enrolling aviremic, HIV-1-infected adults on long-term ART. Cell-associated unspliced (CA-US) HIV-1 RNA and total HIV-1 DNA were quantified in unfractionated CD4+ T cells monthly for a total of six consecutive visits. Random-effects models were used to determine the following: (i) proportion of variation attributable to intra-individual versus inter-individual changes; (ii) range estimate for ra..