%0 Journal Article
%T Prolonged tenofovir treatment of macaques infected with K65R reverse transcriptase mutants of SIV results in the development of antiviral immune responses that control virus replication after drug withdrawal
%A Koen K.A. Van Rompay
%A Kristin A. Trott
%A Kartika Jayashankar
%A Yongzhi Geng
%A Celia C. LaBranche
%A Jeffrey A. Johnson
%A Gary Landucci
%A Jonathan Lipscomb
%A Ross P. Tarara
%A Don R. Canfield
%A Walid Heneine
%A Donald N. Forthal
%A David Montefiori
%A Kristina Abel
%J Retrovirology
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1742-4690-9-57
%X Although one animal had a gradual increase in viremia from 3£¿years onwards, the other 4 tenofovir-treated animals maintained undetectable viremia with occasional viral blips (¡Ü 300 RNA copies/ml plasma). When tenofovir was withdrawn after 8 to 10£¿years from three animals with undetectable viremia, the pattern of occasional episodes of low viremia (¡Ü 3600 RNA/ml plasma) continued throughout the 10-month follow-up period. These animals had low virus levels in lymphoid tissues, and evidence of multiple SIV-specific immune responses.Under certain conditions (i.e., prolonged antiviral therapy initiated early after infection; viral mutants with reduced drug susceptibility) a virus-host balance characterized by strong immunologic control of virus replication can be achieved. Although further research is needed to translate these findings into clinical applications, these observations provide hope for a functional cure of HIV infection via immunotherapeutic strategies that boost antiviral immunity and reduce the need for continuous antiretroviral therapy.
%K Tenofovir
%K PMPA
%K SIV
%K Functional cure
%K Antiretroviral
%K HIV
%U http://www.retrovirology.com/content/9/1/57/abstract