KINETICS OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 REVERSE TRANSCRIPTIONIN BLOOD MONONUCLEAR PHAGOCYTES ARE SLOWED BY LIMITATIONS OF NUCLEOTIDE PRECURSORS

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection of mononuclear phagocyte s has been implicated in disease manifestations, but postentry viral r eplication events in these cells have not been well characterized. Pro ductive infection of activated T cells is associated with cell prolife ration and accumulation of full-length viral DNA within 6 h. In infect ed, nondividing quiescent peripheral blood lymphocytes, reverse transc ription is aborted prior to full-length viral DNA formation. For nondi viding, cultured mononuclear phagocytes, we now report a third pattern of reverse transcription with relatively slow kinetics, in which full -length viral DNA did not accumulate until 36 to 48 h. The reverse tra nscription rate in mononuclear phagocytes could be accelerated by addi tion of exogenous nucleotide precursors, but still not to the rate see n in activated T cells. These results indicate that substrate limitati ons in mononuclear phagocytes slow but do not arrest human immunodefic iency virus type 1 reverse transcription.