Abstract
Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) following HIV-1 infection restricts the size of the latent reservoir, following both horizontal and vertical infections. Here, we comprehensively profile the reservoirs and immunological milieus of nine young adults who acquired HIV-1 perinatally and remained on suppressive long-term ART (median: 20 years) since infancy (LeukoHIV cohort). Genome-intact reservoirs are markedly smaller compared to a cohort of adults on suppressive ART started in adulthood, with some LeukoHIV individuals characterized by an absence or near absence of intact proviruses in up to a billion peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Higher frequencies of functional CD56bright natural killer (NK) cells with increased cytotoxic activity are detectable in the LeukoHIV cohort compared to an adult reference cohort, while one LeukoHIV participant displayed a potent HIV-1-specific CD8+ T cell response. Collectively, our data suggest that long-term ART initiated in early life following perinatal transmission may facilitate an immune environment better equipped to restrict the HIV-1 reservoir.