The Viral make-up makes a world of difference

摘要

We previously demonstrated in vitro and ex vivo that dendritic cells (DCs) exposed to IgG-opsonized HIV (HIV-Ig), as found after seroconversion and in HIV-infected individuals,1 showed an impaired productive infection or were not infected at all and exerted a significantly attenuated CD8+ T cell-stimulatory capacity.1'2 In contrast, complement-opsonized HIV (HTV-C) acted as an endogenous adjuvant for DC-mediated induction of retrovirus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and efficiently bypassed the restriction mechanisms in DCs, thereby causing a high productive infection of DCs.2 Complement opsonization immediately occurs following entry of HIV-1 via mucosal surfaces since the virus expresses a complement-activating domain in its envelope glycoprotein and is spontaneously surrounded by covalently bound complement fragments.