Cofilin Activation in Peripheral CD4 T Cells of HIV-1 Infected Patients: A Pilot Study
Date
2008-10-17
Authors
Wu, Yuntao
Yoder, Alyson
Yu, Dongyang
Wang, Weifeng
Liu, Juan
Barrett, Tracey
Wheeler, David
Schlauch, Karen
Version
OA Version
Citation
Wu, Yuntao, Alyson Yoder, Dongyang Yu, Weifeng Wang, Juan Liu, Tracey Barrett, David Wheeler, Karen Schlauch. "Cofilin activation in peripheral CD4 T cells of HIV-1 infected patients: a pilot study" Retrovirology 5:95. (2008)
Abstract
Cofilin is an actin-depolymerizing factor that regulates actin dynamics critical for T cell migration and T cell activation. In unstimulated resting CD4 T cells, cofilin exists largely as a phosphorylated inactive form. Previously, we demonstrated that during HIV-1 infection of resting CD4 T cells, the viral envelope-CXCR4 signaling activates cofilin to overcome the static cortical actin restriction. In this pilot study, we have extended this in vitro observation and examined cofilin phosphorylation in resting CD4 T cells purified from the peripheral blood of HIV-1-infected patients. Here, we report that the resting T cells from infected patients carry significantly higher levels of active cofilin, suggesting that these resting cells have been primed in vivo in cofilin activity to facilitate HIV-1 infection. HIV-1-mediated aberrant activation of cofilin may also lead to abnormalities in T cell migration and activation that could contribute to viral pathogenesis.
Description
License
Copyright 2008 Wu et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.