TAT and infection: Basal (r = 0.4999, p = 0.0004), consensus Tat- (r = 0.4499, p = 0.0016) and autologous Tat- (r = 0.2940, p = 0.0310) mediated T/F LTR transcriptional activity showed significant positive correlation with viral load (Fig 4B-4D) but negative correlation (r = -0.3428, p = 0.0141; r = -0.3284, p = 0.0180 and r = -0.3514, p = 0.0121 respectively) with CD4 T cell count (S3A-S3C Fig) at the acute phase of infection.