Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1.

The authors describe a mechanism for the observed natural viral "immunity" of individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1. A very few exceptional people have the molecular ability to steer the incoming/infecting cellular virus into the "heterochromatin" areas of their cellular genome where the virus genome is totally segregated, locked in and dormant. Consequentially, over time, most of these patients do not have any detectable virus in the blood. Of the patients reported here, one had no functional HIV viral copies in 1.5 billion cells counted, although a few "non-functional" copies were found. Another had just one functional viral copy of HIV in more than 1 billion blood cells analyzed. Order of authorship in the original paper: Jiang, Lian, Gao....

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)