Technology and Medicine Mast Cells as Reservoirs for HIV Latency

More than a decade ago, Bannert and colleagues first reported that human mast cell (MC) progenitors are susceptible to infection with HIV-1 [1]. This finding was confirmed and extended by other groups in the following years [2-5] providing in vivo evidence that tissue MCs, developing from infected human MC progenitors, remain productively infected in infected people [4]. Moreover, evidence was shown that Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2, TLR4, or TLR9 stimulation of latently infected mast cells induced re-initiation of HIV-1 replication [4]. Although this work introduced MCs as an important new reservoir for HIV-1 latency, few investigators have followed-up this important line of research. Recently CD34+ hematopoietic cell progenitors have been reported to contribute to viral persistence by serving as latent HIV-1 reservoirs in vitro and in vivo and it has been demonstrated that