FIGURE 6:

Schematic of the barriers to HIV cure and conceptual approaches to cure. Combination ART rapidly suppresses viral loads (solid red) to below clinical detection limits, but low level viremia released from long-lived latently infected cells continues. Whenever therapy is stopped, viral load rebounds (solid red). “Sterilizing cure” approaches aim to reduce or completely clear the latent reservoir, or render cells in it incapable of reactivating (possible infection scenario shown in bottom red dotted line). “Functional cure” approaches aim to equip the body with the ability to control reactivating infection before full-blown rebound occurs (effectively by reducing R₀<1) (three possible control scenarios shown in red dotted lines).