Important note: Information in this article was accurate in May 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; May 13, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer
"The CC chemokine receptor CCR5 is an important coreceptor for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and there is a major thrust to develop anti-CCR5-based therapies for HIV-1," explained Dr. Annaline Nansen and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen. "However, it is not known whether CCR5 is critical for a normal antiviral T-cell response."
The results of their study showed that CCR5 is not necessary for effective antiviral immune activity, Nansen and coauthors said.
The researchers studied mice engineered to lack CCR5 expression on macrophages or cytotoxic (CD8(+)) T lymphocytes. Surprisingly, antigen-specific antiviral T-cell activity was actually enhanced in CCR5(-/-) animals exposed to lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCV), they found.
Murine T lymphocytes lacking CCR5 expression had no problems mounting an inflammatory response to cerebral LCV infections or in eradicating viral reservoirs in other organs, study data showed. Moreover, CCR5 expression was not necessary for the induction of delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions in mice.
CCR5(-/-) animals also showed effective long-term immune surveillance by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (The role of CC chemokine receptor 5 in antiviral immunity, Blood 2002 Feb 15;99(4):1237-45.
"Taken together, these results indicate that expression of CCR5 is not critical for T cell-mediated antiviral immunity," Nansen and colleagues concluded, "and this molecule may therefore constitute a logic and safe target for anti-HIV therapies."
The corresponding author for this report is Allan Randrup Thomsen, University of Copenhagen, Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Panum Institute, 3C Blegdamsvej, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
A search at www.NewsRx.net using the term "AIDS and HIV therapy" yielded 988 articles in 24 specialized reports.
Key points reported in this study include
This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.
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