Biology of HIV-1 in women and men

The 1990s were marked by tremendous progress in understanding HIV-1 infection and disease progression in infected individuals. The new discoveries had direct applications in predicting clinical outcomes and monitoring antiviral therapies. With the identification of secondary receptors of HIV-1 cell entry, the CCR-5 receptor was found to be a single genetically determined factor that influences both HIV-1 transmission and disease progression. Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA led to the discoveries that detectable or even high levels of HIV-1 replication occur during all phases of infection and that plasma HIV-1 RNA levels are powerful predictors of clinical outcome. These discoveries in pathogenesis have already been adopted as standards to predict disease progression and to monitor antiviral therapy in infected individuals.