Researchers identify a new #HIV reservoir

A new HIV reservoir – macrophages – has been identified by investigators in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Macrophages are large white blood cells found in tissues throughout the body including the liver, lung, bone marrow and brain. The discovery of this additional viral reservoir has significant implications for HIV cure research. These findings were published in Nature Medicine on Monday, April 17.

"These results are paradigm changing because they demonstrate that cells other than T cells can serve as a reservoir for HIV," said Jenna Honeycutt, Ph.D., lead-author and postdoctoral research associate in the UNC Division of Infectious Diseases. "The fact that HIV-infected macrophages can persist means that any possible therapeutic intervention to eradicate HIV might have to target two very different types of cells."

Now that Garcia and his team know HIV persists in macrophages, the next step will be to determine what regulates HIV persistence in tissue macrophages, where in the body persistently infected macrophages reside during HIV treatment and how macrophages respond to possible therapeutic interventions aimed at eradicating HIV from the body.