Figure 1.

Sex-specific differences in HIV-1 Shock and Kill. The latent HIV-1 provirus needs to undergo multiple steps (in green) to effectively produce virus. Viral quantitation techniques measure different stages of latency reversal (in purple), including HIV-DNA, cell-associated HIV-1 vRNAs (both unspliced US and multiply spliced MS) and released viral protein or vRNA. The steps of the shock and kill approach are indicated in red pentagons: latency reversing agents (LRAs) to reactivate the provirus, followed by either induced cell death (ICD) or immune-mediated killing (ICK) strategies. ICK strategies may include checkpoint inhibition to enhance cytotoxic T-cell lymphocyte (CTL)-mediated killing. The multiple sex-specific differences, both reported and speculated, are depicted in orange boxes.