# A New Approach to Reactivating HIV from Latency

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2021 · $599,565

## Abstract

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) can control but not cure HIV infection because of reservoirs,
particularly latently infected CD4 T cells, established before ART was begun, from which infection rebounds if
ART is interrupted. To achieve a functional cure or eradication of this reservoir, “shock and kill” strategies seek
to reactivate latently infected CD4+ T-cells for elimination by immune or other mechanisms, but current
methods for reactivation predicated on the concept that harbor HIV proviruses that have been transcriptionally
silenced by epigenetic or other mechanisms have proven quite inefficient in reversing latency. This proposal
describes a new approach to reactivating latently infected cells by lentivirus vector induced expression of the
HIV tat gene. Preliminary results provide evidence of extraordinary efficiency of Tat-reactivation and the
underpinnings for an in vitro latency reactivation assay with new single cell measurements of the latently
infected cell reservoir from which infection will rebound if ART is interrupted. The Specific Aims of the proposal
are to 1) further develop the Tat-reactivation assay as a faster and more accurate assay for reservoir
evaluations in peripheral blood (PB) and lymphoid tissues (LT); determine the correlations between single cell
measurements of virus producing cells, cells with intact HIV genomes and current quantitative virus growth
assays; and 2) apply the assay to assess the impact of ART in very early stage infection to limit the size of HIV
reservoirs in PB and LT. peripheral blood (PB) and lymphoid tissues (LT). The long-term goal of investigation
of Tat-reactivation is development of more effective approaches to the “shock” component of shock and kill
approaches to reducing HIV reservoirs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10212924
- **Project number:** 5R01AI134406-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** ASHLEY T. HAASE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $599,565
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10212924

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10212924, A New Approach to Reactivating HIV from Latency (5R01AI134406-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10212924. Licensed CC0.

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