Brain HIV-1 latently-infected reservoirs targeted by the suicide gene strategy.

Fiche publication


Date publication

mai 2021

Journal

Virology journal

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr ROHR Olivier


Tous les auteurs :
Saeb S, Ravanshad M, Pourkarim MR, Daouad F, Baesi K, Rohr O, Wallet C, Schwartz C

Résumé

Reducing the pool of HIV-1 reservoirs in patients is a must to achieve functional cure. The most prominent HIV-1 cell reservoirs are resting CD4 + T cells and brain derived microglial cells. Infected microglial cells are believed to be the source of peripheral tissues reseedings and the emergence of drug resistance. Clearing infected cells from the brain is therefore crucial. However, many characteristics of microglial cells and the central nervous system make extremely difficult their eradication from brain reservoirs. Current methods, such as the "shock and kill", the "block and lock" and gene editing strategies cannot override these difficulties. Therefore, new strategies have to be designed when considering the elimination of brain reservoirs. We set up an original gene suicide strategy using latently infected microglial cells as model cells. In this paper we provide proof of concept of this strategy.

Mots clés

HIV-1, Latent reservoirs, Microglial, Suicide gene

Référence

Virol J. 2021 May 31;18(1):107