Nat Commun: Transient viral exposure drives humoral immune responses in HIV-1 post-treatment controllers

Very few HIV-1Infected people are called "post-treatment controllers" (PTCs), and they are able to control the infection in their bodies after interrupting all antiretroviral therapy

A small percentage of people living with HIV-1 have the ability to control the virus long-term when their treatment is interrupted after receiving early treatment and maintaining it for years

These authors conducted an exhaustive study of post-treatment controllers to characterize their humoral immune responses (ie, the B cells and specific antibodies they produced) compared with post-treatment non-controllers

In post-treatment controllers who experienced brief viral activity, the virus returned to low levels of activity after treatment interruption, and brief exposure to viral antigens elicited (1) robust anti-HIV-1 humoral immune responses, including more frequent Interferes with HIV-1 envelope-specific memory B cells; (2) produces cross-neutralizing antibodies with “effector” antiviral activity, and innate immune cells recognize infected cells to which these antibodies bind, thereby prompting their Clearance; (3) Increased atypical memory B cell and activated helper T cell subsets in blood

This specific, versatile, and robust humoral immune response can help control infections without treatment

Serum HIV-1 antibody responses in post-treatment controllers (PTC) and post-treatment non-controllers (PTNC)

These in vivo samples were used as a post-treatment controller for this study as part of the VISCONTI (Viro-Immunological Sustained COntrol after Treatment Interruption) study

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