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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Determinants of the natural history of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection
1Northwestern University Medical School, Comprehensive AIDS Center, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.
Abstract:
Variation in the time to AIDS and duration of survival of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected persons was recognized early in the epidemic. Recent studies have indicated that the rate of viral replication, as manifest by the number of copies of HIV RNA per milliliter of plasma, is a major determinant of outcome in an infected person. The predictive power of the measurement of plasma HIV RNA copy number is enhanced by combining this result with the CD4 lymphocyte number. The determinants of the rate of viral replication are less clearly defined. Recent studies suggest that polymorphism of the chemokine receptors, required for cellular infection, plays a role in regulating the rate of viral replication. The subsequent adaptive evolution of HIV-1 to the host's immune response is a consequence of this dynamic of the virus. Complicating opportunistic infections also appear to enhance HIV-1 replication, while antiviral therapy, in contrast, can and does suppress viral replication.
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