The neglected brain reservoirs：a barrier to an HIV cure
KANG Wen
SUN Yong-tao
Abstract：Reducing the size of virus reservoirs is fundamental for HIV positive patients to achieve an HIV functional cure. The〝shock and kill〞strategy enables the reactivation of latent reservoirs, which will be followed by an intensive combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) or therapeutic immunization to clear the reservoirs. HIV can latently infected cells such as perivascular macrophages, microglial cells, and astrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS), and this brain reservoirs need to be eliminated. However, the CNS is a pharmacological sanctuary isolated from other parts of the body. In addition, latently infected cells in the brain are rather different from the main memory T-cells in the virus reservoirs. So it might be difficult to eliminate or reduce brain reservoirs since the CNS has these unique characteristics. In order to provide some ideas and methods for the realization of functional cure of HIV, this review will give an introduction on the existing understanding of viral reservoirs in the CNS, discuss several limitations to the eradication of brain reservoirs, and conclude the potential therapeutic implications of purging brain reservoirs.
Keywords：HIVfunctional curebrain reservoirantiretroviral therapylatency-reversing agentstherapeutic immunization
Publication Date：2016-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 324-328 )