A monocyte chemotaxis inhibiting factor in serum of HIV infected men shares epitopes with the HIV transmembrane protein gp41
Tas, M.; Drexhage, H.A.; Goudsmit, J.
Clinical and Experimental Immunology 71(1): 13-18
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-9104 PMID: 2450703 Document Number: 311886
This report describes that gp41, the transmembranous envelope protein of HIV, is able to inhibit monocyte chemotaxis (measured as FMLP-induced polarization). To study the presence of such immunosuppressive HIV env proteins in the circulation of HIV-infected men, fractions were prepared from serum via ultrafiltration, yielding molecules with a relative Mr of 25-50. These fractions inhibited FMLP-induced polarization of normal human monocytes, while similar fractions of HIV-uninfected men did not. A monoclonal antibody (MoAb) to pg41 was able to adsorb the serum factor responsible for this inhibitory activity. This demonstration of the presence of a pg41-like factor in the circulation of HIV-infected men exerting immunosuppressive activities might have implications for the understanding of the pathogenesis of AIDS, as well as for the selection of HIV-encoded proteins for putative vaccines.