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Amphotericin-B-mediated reactivation of latent HIV-1 infection.

Jones J, Kosloff BR, Benveniste EN, Shaw GM, Kutsch O

Department of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA,

To date, attempts to eliminate HIV-1 infection from its latent reservoirs, a prerequisite for the development of a curative treatment strategy for HIV-1 infection, have been unsuccessful. We demonstrate that the FDA approved antifungal agent amphotericin B efficiently reactivates HIV-1 infection in THP89GFP cells, a model of HIV-1 latency in macrophages. Although amphotericin B does not directly reactivate latent HIV-1 infection in T cells (e.g., J89GFP), amphotericin-B-stimulated macrophages (THP89GFP cells or primary macrophages) when cocultured with J89GFP cells can induce HIV-1 reactivation in these cells in trans. Because of the close proximity of antigen presenting macrophages and T cells in the primary lymphoid organs, such interaction between antigen presenting macrophages and T cells are frequent, and it seems reasonable to assume that trans-reactivation strategies hold promise to also reactivate latent HIV-1 infection in vivo.

Published 7 December 2004 in Virology, 331(1): 106-16.
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