{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,28]],"date-time":"2026-07-28T23:52:01Z","timestamp":1785282721835,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769126400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003196","name":"Ministry of Health, Rome, Italy","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RIP-1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RIP-1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003196","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>People living with HIV-1 (PLWH) are part of the so-called \u201cfragile\u201d populations to which COVID-19 vaccines were\/are strongly recommended. The fact that most widely used COVID-19 vaccines rely on the production of a biologically active SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein expressed by synthetic mRNA poses the relevant question of whether and how this vaccination influences the fate of the HIV-1 reservoir. This report presents a detailed analysis of the literature data on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike and COVID-19 vaccines on HIV-1 latently infected cells. Despite being limited in number, the experimental evidences consistently indicate that vaccine mRNA and\/or SARS-CoV-2 Spike can effectively reactivate latent HIV-1. This conclusion has been drawn after \u201cin vitro\u201d, \u201cex vivo\u201d, and \u201cin vivo\u201d assays, and with virus-associated Spike, soluble Spike, or its intracellular expression, as well as with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. On the other hand, real-world observations on vaccinated PLWH under antiretroviral therapy (ART) provided evidence of HIV-1 reactivation almost exclusively in PLWH with unsuppressed viremia, as measured in terms of size of the HIV-1 reservoir. Although several issues still need to be clarified through urgent additional investigations, these data suggest the possibility that the Spike protein and\/or the vaccine mRNA molecules affect the HIV-1 latency in PLWH.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v18020154","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T13:55:34Z","timestamp":1769176534000},"page":"154","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Potential Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein on HIV-1 Reservoir in People Living with HIV"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4154-1025","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maurizio","family":"Federico","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Center for Global Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanit\u00e0, 00161 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Federico, M. 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