Figure 2.

HIV reservoir target cells in a suitable small animal model system to study HIV latency. Cells demonstrated to harbor latent HIV in different tissues are shown. We propose an ideal humanized rodent model system that depicts HIV reservoirs spread across various tissue types around the body. The majority of latent virus is found in CD4+ resting memory T cells (T_RM), along with other CD4+ T cell subsets (T_EM, T_CM, _and T_H). MP reservoirs are in a range of tissue compartments. In addition to having a peripheral functional human immune system, the ideal humanized model system should have abundant cells of human origin which include T cells, B cells, dendritic cells, monocytes, and macrophages that can be maintained for a year for long-term HIV latency studies and subsequent targeting of those reservoirs for ultimate HIV elimination and for clinical translation. T_EM = T effector memory; T_CM = T central memory; T_H = T helper; NK = natural killer.