Quantifying Susceptibility of CD4+ Stem Memory T-Cells to Infection by Laboratory Adapted and Clinical HIV-1 Strains

Viruses

Jacqueline K. Flynn²  Geza Paukovics³  Kieran Cashin²  Katharina Borm²  Anne Ellett²  Michael Roche²  Martin R. Jakobsen¹  Melissa J. Churchill² 

[1] Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus 237551, Denmark; E-Mail:;Center for Biomedical Research, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia; E-Mails:;Alfred Medical Research and Education Precinct and Burnet Institute Flow Cytometry Core Facility, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia; E-Mail:

关键词: HIV-1;    stem memory T cells;    CD4⁺ T cells;    T cell subsets;    envelope;    viral reservoir;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v6020709

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

CD4⁺ T cells are principal targets for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. CD4⁺ T cell subsets are heterogeneous cell populations, divided by functional and phenotypic differences into naïve and memory T cells. The memory CD4⁺ T cells are further segregated into central, effector and transitional memory cell subsets by functional, phenotypic and homeostatic characteristics. Defining the distribution of HIV-1 infection in different T cell subsets is important, as this can play a role in determining the size and composition of the viral reservoir. Both central memory and transitional memory CD4⁺ T cells have been described as long-lived viral reservoirs for HIV. Recently, the newly described stem memory T cell subset has also been implicated as a long-lived HIV reservoir. Using green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter strains of HIV-1 and multi parameter flow cytometry, we developed an assay to simultaneously quantify the susceptibility of stem memory (TSCM), central memory, effector memory, transitional memory and naïve CD4⁺ T cell subsets, to HIV-1 infection in vitro. We show that TSCM are susceptible to infection with laboratory adapted and clinical HIV-1 strains. Our system facilitates the quantitation of HIV-1 infection in alternative T cell subsets by CCR5- and CXCR4-using viruses across different HIV-1 subtypes, and will be useful for studies of HIV-1 pathogenesis and viral reservoirs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.