Successful approaches for eradication or cure of HIV-1 infection are likely to include immunological mechanisms, but remarkably little is known about how human immune responses can recognize and interact with the few HIV-1-infected cells that harbour genome-intact viral DNA, persist long term despite antiretroviral therapy and represent the main barrier to a cure. For a long time regarded as being completely shielded from host immune responses due to viral latency, these cells do, on closer examination with single-cell analytic techniques, display discrete footprints of immune selection, implying that human immune responses may be able to effectively engage and target at least some of these cells. The failure to eliminate rebound-competent virally infected cells in the majority of persons likely reflects the evolution of a highly selected pool of reservoir cells that are effectively camouflaged from immune recognition or rely on sophisticated approaches for resisting immune-mediated killing. Understanding the fine-tuned interplay between host immune responses and viral reservoir cells will help to design improved interventions that exploit the immunological vulnerabilities of HIV-1 reservoir cells.

根除或治愈 HIV-1 感染的成功方法可能包括免疫机制，但对于人类免疫反应如何识别少数携带基因组完整病毒 DNA 的 HIV-1 感染细胞并与之相互作用，人们知之甚少。尽管进行了抗逆转录病毒治疗，但仍长期存在，并且是治愈的主要障碍。长期以来，由于病毒潜伏期，这些细胞被认为完全免受宿主免疫反应的影响，但通过单细胞分析技术的仔细检查，这些细胞确实显示出免疫选择的离散足迹，这意味着人类免疫反应可能能够有效地参与并至少靶向其中一些细胞。大多数人未能消除具有反弹能力的病毒感染细胞，这可能反映了经过精心挑选的储存细胞池的进化，这些储存细胞有效地隐藏在免疫识别之外，或者依赖于复杂的方法来抵抗免疫介导的杀伤。了解宿主免疫反应和病毒储存细胞之间的微调相互作用将有助于设计改进的干预措施，以利用 HIV-1 储存细胞的免疫脆弱性。