Fig. 2 (Continued).

Long-term persistence of multiple transcriptionally active ‘defective’ HIV-1 provirus clones during suppression of plasma HIV-RNA less than 50 copies/ml on antiretroviral therapy.

(a, c, and e) Longitudinal changes in the number of sequences from expanded HIV-1 clones obtained from Pts 21–23 (detected as either HIV-RNA transcripts with or without corresponding HIV-DNA) and corresponding western blot patterns were assessed over the period of observation. Timepoints when plasma HIV-RNA level was at least 50 copies/ml are indicated in red. Distinct expanded provirus clones are assigned different sequence IDs. Symbols denote type of sequences detected at a given time point; numbers inside each symbol indicate the number of sequences detected at a given time point. (b, d, and f) Genome structures and protein-coding regions of the expanded HIV-1 clones are shown; the Highlighter analysis indicates nucleotide substitutions compared with HIV-1 HXB2. Schematic diagrams of known unspliced and spliced HIV-RNA species (represented by blue bars) are shown at the upper right panel for comparison.