POTENT LATENCY REVERSAL BY TAT RNA ENABLES IN-DEPTH MULTI-OMIC ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSLATION-COMPETENT HIV RESERVOIR

HIV infection remains incurable due to the long-term persistence of latently infected cells, capable of refueling viremia upon antiretroviral therapy interruption. Shock-and-kill strategies aim to purge this latent reservoir by inducing the expression of viral genes, making infected cells visible for cleanup by the immune system. Here, we present a Tat mRNA formulation that, when combined with panobinostat, enables latency reversal at levels >3-fold higher than those reached with the most potent mitogens. We demonstrate that this mRNA formulation does not alter the transcriptome or phenotype of CD4 T cells, enabling the ex vivo assessment of infected cells upon latency reversal in a near-native state. Taking advantage of this characteristic, we show transcriptomic and proteomic differences between infected cells upon latency reversal and non-infected cells, including the upregulation of the cytotoxic protein granzyme A and a novel long non-coding RNA. Overall, we demonstrate that a Tat mRNA formulation enables potent reactivation of latent HIV, presenting a valuable research tool for studying the inducible HIV reservoir, as well as paving the way to a more effective shock-and-kill functional cure. Sorted CD4 cells from 4 donors were treated with various stimuli at 2 time points. Comparison made for each treatment at each time point