HIDING OUT: An SIV-infected macaque undergoes a PET scan after being injected with an antibody against a viral envelope glycoprotein (gp120). The scan picks up the radiolabeled antibody, highlighting where replicating HIV exists in the body beyond the blood.© GEORGE RETSECK
Antiretroviral drug treatment of HIV-positive patients reduces the virus to an undetectable level, but in reality it’s not eradicated. The virus still lurks in secluded locations around the body. “If you stop giving the drugs, the virus comes back,” says Tom Hope of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
The problem, Hope says, is that “almost everything we know about this disease comes from studying the blood, and that does not reflect what’s going on in the different tissues.” The only option for studying body tissues has been to perform biopsies, which are invasive and often don’t provide a complete picture of the whole tissue, let alone the extent of the body.
François Villinger of Emory University in Atlanta realized there “needed to ...
