FIGURE 1.

Characteristics of elite controllers, posttreatment controllers and antiretroviral therapy-treated patients. Top panel: elite controllers show a strong, effective immune response against HIV-1, primarily based on CD8 T cells. PTCs, on the contrary, may display a less pronounced antiviral immunity, even though great heterogeneity has been detected in the immunological features of these individuals. Middle panel: both elite controllers and PTCs harbor a significantly lower frequency of HIV-1-infected cells in blood when compared with ART-treated patients. Lower panel: HIV-1 reservoir in elite controllers is dominated by poorly inducible proviruses showing low transcriptional activity. Features of HIV-1 reservoir in PTCs are largely unknown but based on preliminary data and on paucity of antiviral immune responses detected ex vivo in these patients, we can speculate that a reduced transcriptional activity of intact reservoirs might be associated to natural control of HIV-1 replication in this group. ART, antiretroviral therapy; PTCs, posttreatment controllers.