Detection and Measurement of the HIV Reservoir

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Investigator: Mike McCune, MD, PhD
Sponsor: American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR)

Location(s): United States

Description

A recurring theme of recent amfAR-funded cure-based research has been the need to eradicate HIV reservoirs. These silent pockets of HIV, impervious to current anti-HIV drugs, are formed mainly by so-called central memory T cells. Those T cells may reside anywhere in the body. If strategies to lower and eventually eliminate these cells are to be optimized, an adequate means to quantify their burden in an infected individual is key, as are the development of standard testing schemes to allow comparisons across trials.