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From the * Theodor Kocher Institute, Bern CH-3000, Switzerland; HIV-1 actively replicates in dendritic cell (DC)-T cell cocultures, but it has been difficult to
demonstrate substantial infection of purified mature DCs. We now find that HIV-1 begins reverse transcription much more efficiently in DCs than T cells, even though T cells have higher
levels of CD4 and gp120 binding. DCs isolated from skin or from blood precursors behave
similarly. Several M-tropic strains and the T-tropic strain IIIB enter DCs efficiently, as assessed
by the progressive formation of the early products of reverse transcription after a 90-min virus
pulse at 37°C. However, few late gag-containing sequences are detected, so that active viral
replication does not occur. The formation of these early transcripts seems to follow entry of
HIV-1, rather than binding of virions that contain viral DNA. Early transcripts are scarce if
DCs are exposed to virus on ice for 4 h, or for 90 min at 37°C, conditions which allow virus
binding. Also the early transcripts once formed are insensitive to trypsin. The entry of a
M-tropic isolates is blocked by the chemokine RANTES, and the entry of IIIB by SDF-1.
RANTES interacts with CCR5 and SDF-1 with CXCR4 receptors. Entry of M-tropic but
not T-tropic virus is ablated in DCs from individuals who lack a functional CCR5 receptor.
DCs express more CCR5 and CXCR4 mRNA than T cells. Therefore, while HIV-1 does not
replicate efficiently in mature DCs, viral entry can be active and can be blocked by chemokines that act on known receptors for M- and T-tropic virus.
Aaron Diamond AIDS
Research Center, New York 10016; § Biomedical Research Center, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, British Columbia V6T-2Z3, Canada; and
Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and
Immunology, Rockefeller University, New York 10021
This article has been cited by other articles:
-Chemokine MDC. Science
278: 695-698
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