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Though the latest antiretroviral therapy suppresses HIV to undetectable levels, we know that the virus hides in white blood cells ready to begin multiplying once the suppressing drugs stop. Researchers at New York’s Mount Sinai’s School of Medicine have developed a method for identifying and tracking immune white cells that harbor dormant HIV and make the virus so difficult to completely eradicate.  They announce this development in the journal Nature.

Using humanized mice and a genetic color-switching system, the researchers marked white cells with a fluorescent marker that switches from red to green when HIV is present, even if the virus is dormant. This permitted tracking and genetic profiling of over 47,000 immune cells, identifying nine distinct T cell types capable of hiding dormant HIV even following weeks of antiretroviral therapy.

Now that white cells harboring HIV can be identified and sorted, the door is widely opened for developing therapies that seek and destroy these hidden viral nests.  The technique promises to, finally, completely eradicate the causative agent for AIDS in HIV-infected patients. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250313151958.htm

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57368-7

#HIV #AIDS #fluorescence