Might dolutegravir be part of a functional cure for HIV?
1 a McGill University AIDS Centre, Lady Davis for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montréal, Que., Canada.
2 b Division of Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Que., Canada.
3 c Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Que., Canada.
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has greatly decreased HIV-related morbidity and mortality. However, HIV can establish viral reservoirs that evade both the immune system and ART. Dolutegravir (DTG) is a second-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) related to the first-generation INSTIs raltegravir (RAL) and elvitegravir (EVG). DTG shows a higher genetic barrier to the development of HIV-1 resistance than RAL and EVG. More interestingly, clinical resistance mutations to DTG in treatment-naïve patients have not been observed to date. This review summarizes recent studies on strategies toward a cure for HIV, explores resistance profiles of DTG, and discusses how DTG might help in finding a functional cure for HIV.