Modulation and distribution of extracellular free water and tract deficits in rhesus macaques before and after the initiation of emtricitabine + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate + dotutegravir treatment.

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the specific timing of cART initiation, its effectiveness, and failures, as well as assessing how well the current cART regimens control viral replication and rebound, enhance immune function, and repair or curb early injury in the central nervous system (), is crucial to improving the livelihood of people living with HIV.

METHODS

Here, we use an animal model to provide controlled environments to understand how the bodies of Chinese-origin rhesus monkeys, both the immune system and , respond to a combination of emtricitabine (), dolutegravir (), and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate () following the induction of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (). We injected the rhesus monkeys with a dose of mac239 (i.e., TCID50-a 50-fold half-tissue culture infective dose) through brachial veins and conducted seven follow-ups at baseline, day 10, day 35, day 84, day 168, day 252, and day 336 for MRI imaging and blood/CSF assays of copies and immunity levels.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Our experimental data demonstrate that the immune system is compromised as early as 7 days after infection, with a rapid rise of copies in and a significant drop of ratio below ~1 within the first 14 days of infection. The alterations in the extracellular environments, manifesting as increased free water volume fraction () in MRI data and changes in the diffusivity properties of fiber tissues appearing in -corrected and -corrected , occur in parallel with an compromised immune system, suggesting that enters the brain parenchyma in the early days of infection via a weakened brain defense system, causing inflammatory processes affecting the . Our findings demonstrate that our current FTC++ regimen can enhance the immune system, suppress replication, and slow damage to the intra- and extracellular environments. However, it is still ineffective in controlling viral rebound and experiences resistance in some rhesus monkeys, which may lead to further damage to the . Our findings also provide the first SIVmac239-based evidence that extracellular may be a more reliable biomarker of abnormal inflammatory processes, thus providing a better understanding of disease progression than previously anticipated.