title: Early Combination Antiretroviral Therapy Limits HIV-1 Persistence in Children.
abstract: Globally, 240,000 infants are newly infected with HIV-1 each year and 3.2 million children are living with the infection. Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has reduced HIV-1-related disease and mortality in children but is not curative owing to the early generation of a latent reservoir of long-lived memory CD4(+) T cells bearing replication-competent HIV-1 provirus integrated into cellular DNA. This review focuses on recent advances in our understanding of the establishment of HIV-1 persistence in children and how early initiation of cART in the setting of the developing infant immune system limits the formation of the long-lived latent CD4(+) cell reservoir that remains a barrier to remission or cure.
authors.affiliation: Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605; email: katherine.luzuriaga@umassmed.edu.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Luzuriaga
mesh_terms: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D055502:Secondary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D019562:Viral Load; D016662:Virus Integration
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents
keywords: HIV-1 remission; latent reservoirs; pediatric HIV-1