Bertero L, et al. - Given that the central nervous system (CNS) is chronically affected by HIV infection and olfactory mucosa is a unique site in the respiratory tract that is directly connected to the CNS, researchers examined olfactory mucosa as a surrogate of CNS sampling via performing this preliminary study examining HIV populations and susceptible cells in the olfactory mucosa. They used the minimally invasive brushing for olfactory mucosa samples and performed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses as per routine clinical procedures. As per observations, for sampling the olfactory mucosa, nasal brushing is a well tolerated and useful technique. They detected HIV-RNA in the olfactory mucosa samples from 88.2% (15/17) of ART-naive participants, and 21.4% (6/28) of ART-treated participants; CSF escape was more common in patients with olfactory mucosa escape (50 vs 7.9%).