Figure 5.

Proliferation of T_TM cells is associated with a genetic stability of the HIV reservoir over time. (a) Neighbor-joining trees derived from HIV sequences obtained from T_CM cells and T_TM cells of two representative aviremic individuals at first and second time points (closed and filled symbols, respectively). Percentages of T_CM cells and T_TM cells expressing the Ki67 proliferation marker are indicated. (b) Genetic evolution of the HIV reservoir in T_CM cells and T_TM cells from five aviremic individuals followed longitudinally. Results are expressed as the mean genetic distance existing between HIV sequences from both time points, corresponding to the estimated genetic divergences of the Env region (left). Percentage of Ki67⁺T_TM cells (middle) and plasma IL-7 concentrations (right) are also shown. (c) Evolution of the HIV reservoir size in eight aviremic individuals. The integrated HIV DNA copy number was measured by Alu real-time PCR in purified CD4⁺ T cells at two time points. For each subject, the line between the two time points reflects the slope of the decrease in the frequency of CD4⁺ T cells harboring HIV proviral DNA. (d) Correlation between the slope decrease in the number of HIV-infected CD4⁺ T cells and the percentage of Ki67⁺ T_TM cells. The decrease in the HIV reservoir size is expressed as a decrease of the percentage of cells harboring HIV proviral DNA per day. (e) Correlation between the slope decrease in the number of HIV-infected CD4⁺ T cells and the plasma IL-7 level measured by ELISA.