HIV_GKO: A Tool to Assess HIV-1 Latency Reversal Agents in Human Primary CD4⁺ T Cells

While able to suppress HIV replication in HIV infected individuals, combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) fails to eliminate viral latent reservoir, which consists in integrated transcriptional silenced HIV provirus. So far, identification of latently-infected cells has relied on activating cells to induce expression of HIV proteins which can then be detected. Unfortunately, this activation significantly changed the cell phenotype. We developed a novel HIV reporter, named HIV_GKO, that allows the purification of latently-infected cells in absence of reactivation. Indeed, latent cells can be identified by expression of the EF1a-driven mKO2 and lack of expression of the LTR-driven csGFP. This protocol can be used to study the effectiveness of LRAs (Latency Reversal Agents) in reactivating latent HIV in primary cells.