Abstract
CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells are the major latent viral reservoir in HIV-infected individuals and hence a major obstacle in curing the disease. An anti-CD45RO immunotoxin (IT) can decrease the number of both productively and latently infected CD4+ T cells obtained from HIV-infected individuals with detectable viremia. In this study, we determined whether this IT could also kill latently infected replication-competent CD4 + T cells obtained from infected individuals without detectable plasma viremia. Our results demonstrate that ex vivo treatment with the anti-CD45RO IT significantly reduced the frequency of these cells. In contrast, the IT had only a modest effect on the cytomegalalovirus-specific memory responses of CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that purging latent cells from infected individuals on highly active antiretroviral therapy with the anti-CD45RO IT might reduce the HIV latent reservoir without seriously compromising CD8+ T cell memory responses.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2494-2499 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 101 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 22 2004 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General