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Review
. 2019 Sep 5;16(1):24.
doi: 10.1186/s12981-019-0239-x.

HIV-2 as a model to identify a functional HIV cure

Joakim Esbjörnsson  1   2   3 , Marianne Jansson  4 , Sanne Jespersen  5   6 , Fredrik Månsson  7 , Bo L Hønge  5   6 , Jacob Lindman  8 , Candida Medina  9 , Zacarias J da Silva  9   10 , Hans Norrgren  8 , Patrik Medstrand  7 , Sarah L Rowland-Jones  11 , Christian Wejse  5   6   12
Affiliations
Review

HIV-2 as a model to identify a functional HIV cure

Joakim Esbjörnsson et al. AIDS Res Ther. .

Abstract

Two HIV virus types exist: HIV-1 is pandemic and aggressive, whereas HIV-2 is confined mainly to West Africa and less pathogenic. Despite the fact that it has been almost 40 years since the discovery of AIDS, there is still no cure or vaccine against HIV. Consequently, the concepts of functional vaccines and cures that aim to limit HIV disease progression and spread by persistent control of viral replication without life-long treatment have been suggested as more feasible options to control the HIV pandemic. To identify virus-host mechanisms that could be targeted for functional cure development, researchers have focused on a small fraction of HIV-1 infected individuals that control their infection spontaneously, so-called elite controllers. However, these efforts have not been able to unravel the key mechanisms of the infection control. This is partly due to lack in statistical power since only 0.15% of HIV-1 infected individuals are natural elite controllers. The proportion of long-term viral control is larger in HIV-2 infection compared with HIV-1 infection. We therefore present the idea of using HIV-2 as a model for finding a functional cure against HIV. Understanding the key differences between HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections, and the cross-reactive effects in HIV-1/HIV-2 dual-infection could provide novel insights in developing functional HIV cures and vaccines.

Keywords: Disease progression; Dual-infection; Functional cure; HIV-1; HIV-2; West Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of potential differences between HIV progressor groups in frequency of HIV reactivation from latency. Clearance or control of the latent HIV reservoir remains one of the main obstacles to achieve a functional HIV cure. Although the viral reservoir in HIV-1 infection has been extensively studied, much less is known about the reservoir size or reactivation frequency from this reservoir in HIV-2, and HIV-1 and HIV-2 dual-infection. This figure outlines possible differences in HIV reservoir size and reactivation frequency between the main HIV infection types and progressor groups discussed in this review. The importance of the order of infection in HIV-1 and HIV-2 dual-infection has been highlighted in the figure, and it is likely that the HIV reservoir size and reactivation frequency will differ between depending of the order of HIV infections types
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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