Addition of Deoxynucleosides Enhances Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integration and 2LTR Formation in Resting CD4⁺T Cells

Resting CD4+ T cells restrict human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection at a step prior to integration. Despite this restriction, we showed previously that HIV integration occurs in resting CD4+ T cells in vitro, albeit at lower levels than in activated CD4+ T cells. Here we show that addition of deoxynucleosides enhanced integration and 2LTR formation in resting CD4+ T cells but that the kinetics were still significantly delayed compared to those of activated T cells. Thus, deoxynucleoside addition partially overcomes the restriction to HIV infection in resting CD4+ T cells.