Single cell technologies and the biology of HIV-infected CD4 T-cell reservoirs.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Although populations of rare HIV-infected CD4 T cells that persist under antiretroviral therapy (ART) are believed to be a major barrier to HIV cure, technical obstacles have made it impossible to determine whether these cells possess distinctive attributes that enable their persistence. Here we review the development of technologies that have begun to allow HIV-infected cells in their natural state to be described comprehensively.

RECENT FINDINGS: As widely used platforms that analyze single-cells within water-in-oil droplets have yielded information about HIV-infected CD4 T cells ex vivo, adaptations of these platforms and custom workflows that address additional technical obstacles specific to some HIV-infected cells have also been developed. These advancements, combined with analyses of defined participant cohorts, tissue-derived cells, and unique clinical scenarios, have provided mounting evidence that HIV-infected cells under ART have distinctive host transcriptomic and epigenetic profiles that may help explain their persistence in vivo.

SUMMARY: Single-cell analytical technologies that can comprehensively describe the biology of HIV-infected cells under ART promise new discoveries that may accelerate development of safe and scalable HIV cure strategies.