Next Generation Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of HIV Elite controller, HIV ART, HIV ART-naive and healthy control Transcriptomes

A small group of HIV-1-infected individuals, termed elite controllers (ECs), display control of HIV replication in the absence of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the mechanisms of resistance to HIV in ECs remains largely unknown. To identify host factors specific to the ECs that might be involved in controlling HIV infection, we performed RNA-seq transcriptome analysis, and a total of 44 samples were included. The monocytes from each sample were enriched, sequenced, and subjected to comparative transcriptome analysis to screen candidate genes that might affect resistance to HIV infection. we found several candidate genes with highly divergent expression that might contribute to the different outcomes of HIV infection in ECs and non-ECs. This finding will help elucidate the mechanisms by which ECs restrict HIV replication and represents a new approach for treatment of HIV. mRNA profiles of from HIV+ Elite controller, HIV+ antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV+ ART-naïve (or treatment-Naïve) and healthy control

少数感染人类免疫缺陷病毒1型（HIV-1）的个体被称为精英控制者（elite controllers, ECs），他们在未接受抗逆转录病毒治疗（antiretroviral therapy, ART）的情况下仍可抑制HIV复制。然而，目前学界对精英控制者抵御HIV感染的具体机制仍知之甚少。为筛选出精英控制者体内可能参与调控HIV感染的特异性宿主因子，本研究开展了RNA测序（RNA-seq）转录组分析，共纳入44份样本。我们对每份样本中的单核细胞进行富集、测序，并开展比较转录组分析，以筛选可能影响HIV感染抵抗性的候选基因。本研究发现多个表达差异显著的候选基因，这些基因可能与精英控制者与非精英控制者之间不同的HIV感染结局相关。该发现有助于阐明精英控制者抑制HIV复制的具体机制，同时为HIV治疗提供了全新的研究思路。本研究的mRNA表达谱来自四类群体：HIV阳性精英控制者、HIV阳性抗逆转录病毒治疗（ART）患者、HIV阳性未接受ART治疗（或称治疗初治）个体以及健康对照者。