The researchers analyzed autopsy tissue samples from five HIV patients who took antiretrovirals and found undetectable levels of the virus in their blood.
However, the virus had evolved and migrated to brain, kidney, spleen and other tissues similar to the way it does in HIV patients who don’t take antiretroviral drugs, the study authors said.
The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of Virology.
It’s possible that active, untreated virus in tissues could be driving diseases unrelated to AIDS “that are increasingly the cause of death for virally suppressed patients,” McGrath said.
“In addition, our findings suggest that strategies to ‘cure’ HIV infection, which are centered on treatment of blood, must consider targeting tissue-based sites of HIV,” he added.