title: In a subset of subjects on highly active antiretroviral therapy, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 RNA in plasma decays from 50 to <5 copies per milliliter, with a half-life of 6 months.
abstract: Three of five virally suppressed human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1)-infected patients treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy and followed intensively with a supersensitive reverse transcriptase PCR assay with a lower limit of quantitation of 5 copies/ml showed statistically significant viral load decays below 50 copies/ml, with half-lives of 5 to 8 months and a mean of 6 months. This range of half-lives is consistent with the estimated half-life of the latent HIV-1 reservoir in the peripheral blood. Those patients without decay of viral load in plasma may have significant cryptic HIV-1 residual replication.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Mascio
authors.forename: Geethanjali
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dornadula
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kulkosky
authors.forename: Roger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Pomerantz
authors.forename: Alan S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Perelson
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects*; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019562:Viral Load
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral