Inhibition of HIV tat could allow patients to halt ART

A paper published in Cell Reports builds on evidence that suggests inhibiting HIV tat protein (HIV tat) could treat HIV by blocking viral transcription and rebound from latent viral reservoirs.

In 2015, a team from the Scripps Research Institute led by Susana Valente showed that inhibiting HIV tat could suppress viral replication and prevent viral rebound after withdrawal of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in cells from HIV patients. While ART effectively suppresses HIV in the blood, the virus persists in cellular reservoirs in which the virus inserts itself into the host genome of the cell, leading to viral rebound if treatment is halted (see BioCentury Innovations, Aug. 6, 2015)...