A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa-;a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world. The study, published in Nature Communications on July 2, helps fill a major gap in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research. Most HIV studies have focused on strains circulating in Western countries, predominantly in men who have sex with men affected by subtype B.

Few studies have examined strains circulating in Africa, where women are disproportionately affected. HIV cure research tends to focus on viral strains circulating in developed countries, but to achieve a cure that is globally applicable, we must study viral strains that are affecting other regions of the world." Dr.

Guinevere Lee, Assistant Professor, Virology in Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Weill Cornell Medicine Dr. Guinevere Lee is assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings show-;like other studies in developed countries-;that HIV strains circulating in Africa establish viral reservoirs in the human body.

Although antiretroviral therapy can reduce the level of HIV in the blood to an undetectable level, these dormant reservoirs continue to survive. They contain a large number of defective proviral DNA genomes which can't produce new infectious viruses, but a small number.