The LeukoHIV cohort has been implemented with the aim to characterize the latent reservoir of perinatally HIV infected children treated early in life (ePHIV) through the analysis of a large amount of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), collected by leukoapheresis. In the analysis of HIV reservoir, this approach may overcome the paucity of sample of the paediatric setting coupled with the limited size of reservoir in ePHIV.
We have showed the safety of the leukapheresis procedure in 9 patients (age range 12-26, mean age 18,6), early treated treated within the first year of life (age at ART start= range 0-336 days, mean 118 dd) with a history of suppressive ART>2 years (range 2-14 years, mean 8,8y) and with a cumulative time on ART ranging from 11 to 25y (mean 17,7y). PBMCs collected from the procedure (range 2,5-9,4 mean 5.06 billion PBMCs) were analyzed for HIV DNA by Full Length Individual Provirus sequencing (FLIP-Seq) and HIV DNA chromosomal integration sites (MIP-Seq).
Overall, these results suggest that this approach may be considered in PHIV for the analysis of HIV reservoir.