The impact of acute stress on the HIV reservoir: a prospective interventional trial

Abstract

The persistence of latently infected CD4+T cells is the major barrier to cure of people with HIV (PWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART). While most latently infected cells are transcriptionally silent, some express low levels of cell associated (CA) HIV RNA. In this prospective controlled interventional study, we tested the hypothesis that acute psychological stress could drive HIV transcription in PWH on ART. PWH on suppressive ART underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and comparisons were made to a similar period of time without an intervention (control).During the test, physiological markers of acute psychological stress including pre-ejection period and cardiac output changed in a..