Quantitative assessment of cell-associated and cell-free virus in cervicovaginal samples of HIV-1-infected women

To examine the amount of cell-free and cell-associated virus in cervicovaginal secretions (CVS) of HIV-infected women. Paired cervicovaginal and blood samples from 61 seropositive women were quantitatively evaluated by competitive polymerase chain reaction (cPCR) and reverse transcription-PCR (cRT-PCR) for: (1) genomic RNA from plasma and cell-free CVS, and (2) unspliced (u/s) RNA transcripts and proviral DNA in cells from secretions. HIV DNA was detected in 42.6%, u/s transcripts in 32.7% and cell-free HIV RNA in 31.1% of 61 cervicovaginal samples. The median copy numbers of HIV DNA, u/s transcripts, and cell-free RNA were 125 copies/105 cells, 40 copies/105 cells, and 300 copies/mL of secretion, respectively. Nineteen of 26 (73.1%) and 17 of 26 (65.3%) women positive for DNA were also positive for RNA transcripts and cell-free RNA, respectively (P