Abstract

Efforts to characterize and eliminate the HIV viral reservoir are hampered by the lack of a viable marker to identify latently infected cells, that could be used as a measure of the viral reservoir size. Using a comparison of latently infected and uninfected cells, we have identified inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 (ITIH4) as a protein that is overexpressed and secreted from cells harboring HIV proviruses. In this project, we will determine if ITIH4 could be used as an identifier for latently infected cells or as a surrogate marker of the HIV reservoir size.