Important note: Information in this article was accurate in July 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; July 1, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer
"Infection of CD4(-) cells by HIV-1 is well documented, but the mechanism responsible remains a matter of discussion," according to Yen-Hung Chow and colleagues working at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Surprisingly, mutant HIV strains without key viral envelope proteins were able to infect both CD4(+) and CD4(-) T cells, the researchers found.
Previous research by Chow and coauthors showed that an HIV strain engineered to produce nonfunctional versions of the Env glycoproteins gp41 and gp120 was able to infect multiple CD4(-) cell lines. In this study, Env(-) HIV was also able to infect the CEM and SUPT1 lines of CD4(+) T cells, they reported.
Several assays revealed p24 antigen production by CD4(+) T cells and CD4(-) epithelial cells infected with mutant HIV, study data showed. These findings confirmed that Env(-) viral strains are capable of productive infection.
Env(-) viruses isolated from study cultures were able to infect cells from a number of additional CD4(-) cell lines (gp120-independent infection of CD4(-) epithelial cells and CD4(+) T-cells by HIV-1, J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2002 May 1;30(1):1-8.
"Our results suggest that HIV-1 infects both CD4(-) and CD4(+) cells using a gp120-independent mechanism," Chow and colleagues concluded. "This infection mechanism may provide new explanations for HIV-1 latency and persistent infection in patients."
The corresponding author for this report is Shen Pang, University of California at Los Angeles, School of Dentistry, Division of Oral Biology and Medicine, 63-050 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Key points reported in this study include:
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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