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Abstract

Feline immunodeficiency virus dendritic cell infection and transfer (PDF) (HTML) 
Sprague,Wendy S.; Robbiani,Melissa; Avery,Paul R.; O'Halloran,Kevin P.; Hoover,Edward A.
Journal of General Virology 89(3): 709-715
Publication date: 2008

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Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) interacts with dendriticcells (DC) during initiation of infection, but whether DC supportor transfer FIV infection remains unclear. To address this issue,we studied the susceptibility of feline myeloid DC to FIV infectionand assessed potential transfer of infection from DC to CD4T cells. FIV was detected in membrane-bound vesicles of DC within2 h of inoculation, although only low concentrations ofFIV DNA were found in virus-exposed isolated DC. Addition ofresting CD4 T cells increased viral DNA levels; however, additionof activated CD4 T cells resulted in a burst of viral replicationmanifested by FIV p27 capsid antigen generation. To determinewhether transfer of FIV infection required productively infectedDC (vs virus bound to DC but not internalized), virus-exposedDC were cultured for 2 days to allow for degradation ofuninternalized virus and initiation of infection in the DC,then CD4 T blasts were added. Infection of T cells remainedrobust, indicating that T-cell infection is likely to be mediatedby de novo viral infection of DC followed by viral transferduring normal DC/T-cell interactions. We conclude that felineDC support restricted FIV infection, which nevertheless is sufficientto efficiently transfer infection to susceptible T cells andtrigger the major burst of viral replication. Feline DC/FIV/T-cellinteractions (similar to those believed to occur in human immunodeficiencyvirus and simian immunodeficiency virus infections) highlightthe means by which immunodeficiency-inducing lentiviruses exploitnormal DC/T-cell interactions to transfer and amplify virusinfection.

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