Figure 2
The impact of Pc infection on the SIV reservoir. (A) A significantly reduced frequency of resting CD4+ T cells harboring replication-competent SIV was observed during malaria infection in the ART + Pc group. Four of 6 monkeys in the ART + Pc group maintained less than 0.51 IUPM during the malaria phase, whereas all 6 monkeys in the ART group maintained an IUPM value above or equal to 0.51. The IUPM values in the two groups of monkeys were significantly different during the malaria phase. (B) The fitted curve revealed dynamic changes in IUPM in the two groups during the study. Each arrow has the same meaning as indicated in Figure 1. (C) Dynamic plots of iDNA in PBMCs at each time point. The copy number was significantly reduced after Pc infection in the ART + Pc group (under ART) compared with the ART group (1.11 ± 6.76 vs. 0.23 ± 10.05 copies/105 PBMCs). The meaning of each arrow is the same as indicated in Figure 1. Fisher’s exact test was utilized to examine the difference in IUPM between the two monkey groups. The numbers of SIV iDNA copies at weeks 51, 54 and 73 in the PBMCs of monkeys in the same group were combined to examine the differences between the two groups. The Mann–Whitney U test was utilized. Empower (R) (www.empowerstats.com, X&Y Solutions, Inc., Boston, MA) and R (http://www.R-project.org) were used for smooth curve fitting.