title: Reversal of Latency as Part of a Cure for HIV-1.
abstract: Here, the use of pharmacological agents to reverse HIV-1 latency will be explored as a therapeutic strategy towards a cure. However, while clinical trials of latency-reversing agents LRAs) have demonstrated their ability to increase production of latent HIV-1, such interventions have not had an effect on the size of the latent HIV-1 reservoir. Plausible explanations for this include insufficient host immune responses against virus-expressing cells, the presence of escape mutations in archived virus, or an insufficient scale of latency reversal. Importantly, these early studies of LRAs were primarily designed to investigate their ability to perturb the state of HIV-1 latency; using the absence of an impact on the size of the HIV-1 reservoir to discard their potential inclusion in curative strategies would be erroneous and premature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, Aarhus, Denmark. Electronic address: thomrasm@rm.dk.
authors.forename: Thomas Aagaard
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tolstrup
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ole Schmeltz
authors.initials: OS
authors.lastname: Søgaard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D017735:Virus Latency / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents
keywords: HIV-1 cure; HIV-1 latency; HIV-1 reservoir; clinical research; histone deacetylase inhibitors; latency-reversing agents