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Washington: A recent study showed that HIV-infected cells release vesicles containing a viral protein called Nef, further damaging cholesterol metabolism and triggering inflammation in nearby uninfected cells.
HIV infects only a limited repertoire of cells expressing HIV receptors. But HIV infection is also badociated with conditions involving the dysfunction of cells that can not be infected with HIV, such as hardening of the arteries, dementia, kidney failure and some heart problems.
These HIV-related conditions persist even after the successful application of antiretroviral therapy when no virus has been found in the blood. Many of these conditions involve alterations in cholesterol metabolism. In the new study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, researchers examined the mechanisms that can contribute to the metabolic conditions badociated with HIV.
The results showed that the HIV Nef protein is released from infected cells into vesicles that are then rapidly absorbed by uninfected white cells, disrupting cholesterol metabolism in these cells.
This deficiency caused the formation of excessive lipid rafts, discrete lipid domains present in the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane, and the repositioning of inflammatory receptors in rafts, triggering inflammation. The results demonstrate how a single viral molecule released from infected cells into the circulation can contribute to a range of pathogenic responses.
"Our study suggests a common mechanism of various co-morbidities of HIV infection, which opens up the possibility of targeting this mechanism with the help of drugs that affect cholesterol metabolism to treat a number of conditions badociated with HIV." living with HIV, "said one of the researchers in the study, Dmitry Sviridov.
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