Provirus integration sites in acute HIV-1 infection and changes after one year of early antiviral therapy

We analyzed sites of provirus integration in acute infections and changes after 48 weeks of early therapy. DNA from peripheral blood lymphomonocytes of 8 acute HIV infections at serodiagnosis (T0) and after 48 weeks of therapy (T1) was used to analyse provirus integration sites, by next-generation sequencing of libraries derived from ligation-mediated PCR. The median number of different (IQR) integration sites in human chromosomes/subject was 5 (range: 2.25-13.00) at T0 and 4 (range: 3.00-6.75) at T1. Of all the integration sites observed at T1, 64% were already present at T0. Provirus integration was observed also in introns of transcriptionally active genes.