Mapping of viral reservoirs and effective immune responses to HIV in tissues

HIV/AIDS is a persistent global health issue.

Despite the success story of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV/AIDS still represents one of the deadliest diseases worldwide. HIV is incurable due to a persistent viral reservoir established during early infection.

Despite most view HIV as a disease centered in peripheral blood, new evidence suggests that the gastrointestinal (GI) tract harbors 98% of the total viral reservoir during ART.

Whether the viral reservoir, drug concentrations and immune control mechanisms in blood is representable of the GI tract in HIV+ individuals remain unknown. To answer these questions, it is critical to conduct comprehensive studies of the GI tract in HIV-infected individuals.

Through our team of researchers and clinicians, we will collect blood and biopsies from essentially the entire lining of the lower GI tract (from rectum to ileum) to identify if i) blood can predict the reservoir size and inflammation in gut, ii) understand if virological, immunological or pharmacological effects in gut can predict poor immunological response to ART and iii) identify the control mechanisms mediated by CD8+ T cells in gut.

This will become the first study, to our best knowledge, that will comprehensively dissect multiple sites in the GI tract from HIV-infected individuals.

In the long run, these studies might also shed light into which latently infected cells in the GI tract that should be targeted in HIV cure studies.