Rhesus Macaque Dendritic Cells Efficiently Transmit Primate Lentiviruses Independently of DC-SIGN

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2002-02, Vol.99 (3), p.1568-1573
• Main Authors: Wu, Li, Bashirova, Arman A., Martin, Thomas D., Villamide, Loreley, Mehlhop, Erin, Chertov, Andrei O., Unutmaz, Derya, Pope, Melissa, Carrington, Mary, KewalRamani, Vineet N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - transmission; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - virology; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antigens, CD; Antigens, Differentiation; Biological Sciences; Cell Adhesion; Cell Adhesion Molecules - physiology; Cell Line; Cell lines; Cells; Cells, Cultured; Conserved Sequence; Data transmission; DC-SIGN protein; Dendritic Cells - virology; Disease transmission; Flow Cytometry; HIV 1; HIV-1 - physiology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infections; Lentivirus; Macaca mulatta; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Molecules; Primate lentiviruses; Primates; RNA, Viral - genetics; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - transmission; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - virology; Simian immunodeficiency virus; Simian Immunodeficiency Virus - physiology; T lymphocytes; Transmission efficiency; Viruses
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.032654399

Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of the rhesus macaque homolog for human DC-SIGN, a dendritic cell-specific C-type lectin. mac-DC-SIGN is 92% identical to hu-DC-SIGN. mac-DC-SIGN preserves the virus transmission function of hu-DC-SIGN, capturing and efficiently transducing simian and human immunodeficiency virus to target CD4+T cells. Surprisingly, however, mac-DC-SIGN plays no discernable role in the ability of rhesus macaque dendritic cells to capture and transmit primate lentiviruses. Expression and neutralization analyses suggest that this process is DC-SIGN independent in macaque, although the participation of other lectin molecules cannot be ruled out. The ability of primate lentiviruses to effectively use human and rhesus dendritic cells in virus transmission without the cells becoming directly infected suggests that these viruses have taken advantage of a conserved dendritic cell mechanism in which DC-SIGN family molecules are significant contributors but not the only participants.