HIV integration sites and implications for maintenance of the reservoir

Abstract

Purpose of review To provide an overview of recent research of how HIV integration relates to productive and latent infection and implications for cure strategies. Recent findings How and where HIV integrates provides new insights into how HIV persists on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Clonal expansion of infected cells with the same integration site demonstrates that T-cell proliferation is an important factor in HIV persistence, however, the driver of proliferation remains unclear. Clones with identical integration sites harbouring defective provirus can accumulate in HIV-infected individuals on ART and defective proviruses can express RNA and produce protein. HIV integration sites differ i..