Hematopoietic Stem Cells and HIV Infection

Autor: Una O'Doherty, Matthew J. Pace
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 207:1790-1792
ISSN: 1537-6613
0022-1899
Popis: (See the major article by McNamara et al on pages 1807–16.) New emphasis has been placed on curing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Before we can eradicate HIV, we need to understand which cells are infected in vivo and which contribute to reservoirs. The best-characterized latent reservoir is resting CD4+ T cells. However, there is evidence that other reservoirs exist, as well [1–3]. Recent data suggest that hematopoietic stem cells and/or progenitors (HPCs) may contribute to the reservoir [4], but other investigators could not detect infected HPCs in vivo [5, 6]. It is challenging to determine whether HPCs are infected, because T cells (which are likely infected at higher levels) may contaminate HPC preparations [5, 6]. A related, more-difficult challenge is to determine whether true hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are infected by HIV in vivo. Resolving these issues will have important implications for HIV cure efforts, including transplantation approaches. In this issue of the Journal, McNamara et al [7] address whether HPCs are detectably infected in vivo and, if so, whether T-cell contamination explains their results. Their data suggest that HPCs are only infected in a subset of HIV infected individuals—those who have been infected for a relatively short time before initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART). This finding may help resolve conflicting data from other groups who did not detect HPC infection [5, 6]. McNamara et al [7] positively selected for immature HPCs, using CD133. The authors chose this simple approach because it maximized cell yield, allowing them to separate a subset of HPCs away from contaminating T cells. By taking this approach, they successfully limited the number of T cells in the CD133+ fraction to
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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