Residual HIV-1 RNA in Blood Plasma of Patients Taking Suppressive Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Abstract

The discovery of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which represents a combination of agents effective against human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) usually including reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors, has led to successful treatment of many patients in diverse cohorts in the developed world.^1,2 Such patients have demonstrated "undetectable" levels of viral RNA in the peripheral blood plasma after treatment with HAART. Most importantly, correlations with these alterations of in vivo HIV-1 expression with HAART have included dramatic changes in mortality and morbidity.³ Thus, suppressive HAART has assisted in converting HIV-1 infection from a poorly treatable and fatal disease into one that can be, in many patients, chronic or at least subacute.