Subtype C HIV-1 reservoirs throughout the body in ART-suppressed individuals

Authors

• Zhou Liu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Louisiana State University Health Sciences CenterFollow
• Peter Julius, University of Zambia
• Guobin Kang, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
• John T. West, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center
• Charles Wood, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

10-24-2022

Citation

JCI Insight. 2022;7(20):e162604. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci. insight.162604.

Comments

Open access.

Abstract

Subtype B HIV-1 reservoirs have been intensively investigated, but reservoirs in other subtypes and how they respond to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is substantially less established. To characterize subtype C HIV-1 reservoirs, we implemented postmortem frozen, as well as formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue sampling of central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral tissues. HIV-1 LTR, gag, envelope (env) DNA and RNA was quantified using genomic DNA and RNA extracted from frozen tissues. RNAscope was used to localize subtype C HIV-1 DNA and RNA in FFPE tissue. Despite uniform viral load suppression in our cohort, PCR results showed that subtype C HIV-1 proviral copies vary both in magnitude and tissue distribution, with detection primarily in secondary lymphoid tissues. Interestingly, the appendix harbored proviruses in all subjects. Unlike subtype B, subtype C provirus was rarely detectable in the CNS, and there was no detectable HIV-1 RNA. HIV-1 RNA was detected in peripheral lymphoid tissues of 6 out of 8 ART-suppressed cases. In addition to active HIV-1 expression in lymphoid tissues, RNAscope revealed HIV RNA detection in CD4-expressing cells in the appendix, suggesting that this tissue was a previously unreported potential treatment-resistant reservoir for subtype C HIV-1.