Study of HIV-1 transmission across cervical mucosa to tonsil tissue cells using an organ culture.

Problem: SIV model indicates that upon traversing the cervicovaginal mucosa, SIV/SIV-infected cells migrate to regional lymph nodes where active replication occurs prior to systemic virus dissemination. The purpose of the study is to develop a model to study early HIV-1 transmission events that occur after crossing the cervical mucosa into regional lymph nodes.

Methods Of Study: We developed an organ culture model combining intact cervical tissue explants and tonsil tissue cells as the surrogate draining lymphoid tissue.

ADAR1 is a novel multi targeted anti-HIV-1 cellular protein.

We examined the antiviral activity of ADAR1 against HIV-1. Our results indicated that ADAR1 in a transfection system inhibited production of viral proteins and infectious HIV-1 in various cell lines including 293T, HeLa, Jurkat T and primary CD4+ T cells, and was active against a number of X4 and R5 HIV-1 of different clades. Further analysis showed that ADAR1 inhibited viral protein synthesis without any effect on viral RNA synthesis.

Noncytotoxic suppression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 transcription by exosomes secreted from CD8+ T cells.

CD8(+) T cells display a noncytotoxic activity that suppresses transcription of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in an antigen-independent and major histocompatibility complex-unrestricted manner. To date, the precise cellular and molecular factors mediating this CD8(+) T-cell effector function remain unsolved. Despite evidence indicating the dependence of the activity on cell-cell contact, the possibility of a membrane-mediated activity that represses transcription from the viral promoter remains unexplored.