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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 1999, p. 2361-2365, Vol. 37, No. 7
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Level of Human Immunodeficiency Virus DNA in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Correlates with Efficacy of Antiretroviral Therapy

Jennifer L. McDermott,¹ Adriana A. Giri,¹ Isabella Martini,¹ Maria Bono,¹ Mauro Giacomini,^1,2 Antonio Campelli,³ Luigi Tagliaferro,⁴ Andrea Cara,⁵ and Oliviero E. Varnier^1,6,*

Molecular Virology Unit, Advanced Biotechnology Center,¹ Department of Communications Computer and System Sciences² and Department of Internal Medicine³ and Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology, Organ Transplantation and Microbiology, Section of Microbiology C. A. Romanzi,⁶ School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Genoa, and Virology Section, "Laboratorio Dott. Pignatelli,"Lecce,⁴ Italy, and Division of Infectious Diseases, Mount Sinai Medical School, New York, New York⁵

Received 28 December 1998/Returned for modification 17 February 1999/Accepted 29 March 1999

A novel colorimetric assay was developed and validated for accurate quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). We tested 318 sequential samples from 56 subjects, 53 of whom were undergoing dual or triple therapy. Patients were considered responders when viremia levels were below 5,000 HIV RNA copies/ml. The mean DNA copy numbers for untreated and responder subjects were similar (72 and 75, respectively), while it was 4.54-fold higher for nonresponders (339). This report provides strong evidence that HIV DNA levels in PBMCs correlate with therapeutic efficacy and suggests that DNA quantitation is a useful tool to monitor the decay of the HIV reservoir toward disease remission, especially when viremia is undetectable.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Molecular Virology Unit, Advanced Biotechnology Center, School of Medicine, L.go R. Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. Phone: 39 010 5737 368. Fax: 39 010 5737 347. E-mail: varnier{at}ermes.cba.unige.it.

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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 1999, p. 2361-2365, Vol. 37, No. 7
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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