Abstract
Despite the success of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), a latent viral reservoir persists in HIV-1-infected persons. Unfortunately, endogenous cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are unable to control viral rebound when patients are removed from cART. A "kick and kill" strategy has been proposed to eradicate this reservoir, whereby infected T cells are induced to express viral proteins via latency-inducing drugs followed by their elimination by CTLs. It has yet to be determined if stimulation of existing HIV-1-specific CTL will be sufficient, or if new CTLs should be primed from naïve T cells. In this review, we propose that dendritic cells (DCs), the most potent antigen presenting cells, act as dog trainers and can induce T cells (the dogs) to do magnificent tricks. We propose the hypothesis that an HIV-1 cure will require targeting of naïve T cells and will necessitate "teaching new dogs new tricks" while avoiding activation of potentially dysfunctional endogenous memory CTLs (letting the sleeping dogs lie).
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 67-77 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Forum on Immunopathological Diseases and Therapeutics |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 1-2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- CTL
- Dendritic cells
- HIV-1
- Immunotherapy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biotechnology
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Medicine
- Genetics