Viremic long-term nonprogressive HIV-1 infection is not associated with abnormalities in known Nef functions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A small minority of HIV-1-infected individuals show low levels of immune activation and do not develop immunodeficiency despite high viral loads. Since the accessory viral Nef protein modulates T cell activation and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of AIDS, we investigated whether specific properties of Nef may be associated with this highly unusual clinical outcome of HIV-1 infection.

Findings

Comprehensive functional analyses of sequential HIV-1 strains from three viremic long-term non-progressors (VNP) showed that they encode full-length Nef proteins that are capable of modulating CD4, CD28, CD8ß, MHC-I and CD74 cell surface expression. Similar to Nef proteins from HIV-1-infected individuals with progressive infection (P-Nefs) and unlike Nefs from simian im

SUBMITTER: Heigele A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3927655 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature