HIV: From Molecular Biology of Latency to Novel Cure Strategies
A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Human Virology and Viral Diseases".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 99
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly improved the outcomes of HIV infection. However, ART is not curative, requiring life-long treatment adherence to control viremia. The inability to cure HIV is due to a “reservoir” of latently infected cells harboring replication-competent virus that persists indefinitely under ART. HIV latency is triggered by various molecular mechanisms that silence virus expression, including epigenetic DNA modifications, histone structural changes, the limited availability of critical transcription factors, and the inefficient elongation of viral transcripts. Based on these conceptual premises, a complete and accurate understanding of the cell signaling pathways and epigenetic landscape responsible for the maintenance and reversal of HIV latency under ART is essential to develop effective therapeutic strategies targeting the persistent viral reservoir.
In this Special Issue, we will focus on the most recent advances in the understanding of HIV persistence, with a special emphasis on host factors, cell signaling, and the epigenetic and metabolic regulation of HIV expression. We will also focus on new developments in the use of bNAb delivery, mRNA-LNP, latency-reversing agents, and CAR T cells in the targeting of cells carrying HIV provirus for HIV cure strategies.
Dr. Deanna Kulpa
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- bNAbs
- CAR T cell therapy
- latency-reversing agents
- mRNA-LNP
- HIV latency establishment
- HIV latency reversal
- HIV persistence
- T cell quiescence
- T cell metabolism
- host factors
- epigenetics
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