Researchers led by Ron Swanstrom, PhD, and colleagues in South Africa, discovered that the latent HIV reservoir that persists during antiretroviral treatment mostly reflects viruses present in the blood at the start of antiretroviral treatment.
“This comes as a big surprise,” said co-senior author Ronald Swanstrom, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the UNC School of Medicine. “Our work suggests that if we could understand the reservoir-forming process better, we might be able to intervene at the start of treatment to reduce the majority of the reservoir that forms at this time.”
Read more about this at the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.