Monocytes harbour replication-competent, non-latent HIV-1 in patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether HIV-1 can be recovered from blood monocytes as well as resting, memory CD4 T lymphocytes of patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with undetectable plasma viraemia and whether infection is active or latent. Design: Five patients with plasma HIV-1-RNA levels of less than 500 copies/ml for at least 3 months and less than 50 copies/ml at the time of sampling were initially selected, followed by an additional five patients with viral loads of less than 50 copies/ml for 3 months or more. Methods: Monocytes were isolated from blood by plastic adherence, then further purified by a second adherence step or CD3 depletion before co-culture with CD8-de..