Myeloid and plasmacytoid dendritic cells transfer HIV-1 preferentially to antigen-specific CD4 super(+) T cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are essential antigen-presenting cells for the induction of T cell immunity against pathogens such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1. At the same time, HIV-1 replication is strongly enhanced in DC-T cell clusters, potentially undermining this process. We found that immatu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of experimental medicine 2005-06, Vol.201 (12), p.2023-2033
Main Authors: Lore, Karin, Smed-Soerensen, Anna, Vasudevan, Jayanand, Mascola, John R, Koup, Richard A
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Dendritic cells (DCs) are essential antigen-presenting cells for the induction of T cell immunity against pathogens such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1. At the same time, HIV-1 replication is strongly enhanced in DC-T cell clusters, potentially undermining this process. We found that immature CD123 super(+) plasmacytoid DCs (PDCs) and CD11c super(+) myeloid DCs (MDCs) were susceptible to both a CCR5- and a CXCR4-using HIV-1 isolate in vitro and were able to efficiently transfer that infection to autologous CD4 super(+) T cells. Soon after HIV-1 exposure, both PDCs and MDCs were able to transfer the virus to T cells in the absence of a productive infection. However, once a productive infection was established in the DCs, newly synthesized virus was predominantly spread to T cells. HIV-1 exposure of the MDCs and PDCs did not inhibit their ability to present cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens and activate CMV-specific memory T cells. As a result, both PDCs and MDCs preferentially transmitted HIV-1 to the responding CMV antigen-specific CD4 super(+) T cells rather than to nonresponding T cells. This suggests that the induction of antigen-specific T cell responses by DCs, a process crucial to immune defense, can lead to preferential HIV-1 infection and the deletion of responding CD4 super(+) T cells.
ISSN:0022-1007
1892-1007