Innate antiviral and immune functions associated with the HIV reservoir decay after anti-PD-1 therapy

Abstract

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses HIV but does not eliminate the latent viral reservoir, which persists in programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)-expressing CD4+ T cells. Anti-PD-1 therapies have reduced the HIV reservoir in people living with HIV (PLWH) and cancer; however, the individuals who benefit and the mechanisms driving reservoir reduction remain unclear. We performed a prespecified exploratory, longitudinal multiomic profiling of 30 PLWH (29 males and one female) with cancer in the phase 1 CITN-12 clinical trial, in which pembrolizumab was evaluated for safety and preliminary antitumor activity. The therapy was generally well tolerated, with most adverse events graded 1–2 and..