QUANTITATIVE VIRAL OUTGROWTH ASSAY (QVOA) SERVICE RESOURCE

使用高效抗逆转录病毒疗法(HAART)可以有效地抑制HIV感染患者的HIV-1复制。然而，尽管有效的抑制治疗，HIV已知存在于潜伏期状态，最具特征的潜伏库是静止的记忆CD4T细胞。当这些休眠细胞在细胞激活后其休眠状态发生逆转时，就会产生艾滋病毒。为了实现艾滋病毒疾病的治愈，需要识别和消除艾滋病毒的潜在蓄水池。为了评估这些策略在清除潜伏病毒库方面的有效性，能够量化潜伏艾滋病毒的可重复性检测是至关重要的。当今最具特色的检测方法是QVOA(定量病毒生长分析)，也被称为IUPM(感染单位/百万)，在逆转潜伏期和诱导HIV复制的条件下对高纯度的静止CD4T细胞进行检测。然而，QVOA测量需要大量的血液，昂贵、繁琐和劳动密集型，因此不是许多进行艾滋病毒根除研究的实验室的选择。NIAID要求将QVOA作为一项服务提供给艾滋病毒研究界。这项服务将允许标准化的QVOA测量，以便能够在不同根除策略之间进行公正的比较。该检测方法的广泛使用将提高潜伏性艾滋病毒检测的标准，并减少对一些实验室目前使用的不太准确的替代检测方法的需求。

HIV-1 replication can be effectively suppressed in HIV infected patients using highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). However, despite effective suppressive therapy, HIV has been known to exist in a state of latency, with the best characterized latent reservoir being the resting memory CD4+ T cells. These resting cells produce HIV when their resting state is reversed following cellular activation. To achieve a cure for HIV disease, the latent reservoir of HIV needs to be identified and eliminated. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies at clearing the latent reservoir, a reproducible assay capable of quantifying latent HIV is crucial. The best characterized assay today is the QVOA (Quantitative Viral Outgrowth Assay), also known as IUPM assay (Infectious Units Per Million) performed on highly purified resting CD4+ T cells under conditions that reverse latency and induce replication of HIV. However, QVOA measurements require large volumes of blood, are expensive, tedious, and labor intensive and therefore not the assay of choice for many laboratories conducting HIV eradication research. NIAID has a requirement to provide the QVOA as a service to the HIV research community. This service will allow standardized QVOA measurements so that unbiased comparisons between different eradication strategies can be achieved. Widespread use of the assay will raise the standards for latent HIV detection and reduce the need for surrogate, less accurate assays, presently used by some laboratories.