Cs. Chou et al., HIGHLY PURIFIED CD25(-) RESTING T-CELLS CANNOT BE INFECTED DE-NOVO WITH HIV-1, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 94(4), 1997, pp. 1361-1365
Previous studies have demonstrated that the expression of CD25 can dis
tinguish CD25(-) latently infected cells from CD25(+) cells actively p
roducing virus. Our studies were designed to characterize the nature a
nd stability of the viral genome in CD25(-) quiescent HIV-1-infected c
ells and to determine whether these cells could be infected de novo wi
th HIV-1. Our results show that: (i) When unfractionated peripheral bl
ood mononuclear cells are first infected with HIV-1 and the CD25(-) ce
lls then isolated, the latter contain only incomplete DNA transcripts
and no full-length DNA or 2-LTR circles, Phytohemagglutinin activation
of these CD25(-) cells results in the generation of full-length viral
DNA and p24 production, (ii) When CD25(-) CD4(+) cells are first puri
fied from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and then incubated with H
IV-1, viral DNA cannot be detected, suggesting that these purified cel
ls cannot be infected, Furthermore, CD25(-) adherent cells do not faci
litate the infection of CD4(+) CD25(-) cells when they were present at
the time of incubation with HIV-1, Taken together, these studies sugg
est either that (i) the CD25(-) cells containing incomplete DNA transc
ripts are derived from infected-activated CD25(+) cells, which subsequ
ently become CD25(-) or (ii) the presence of CD25(+) cells is required
for the infection of CD25(-) cells in vitro.