Generation of Liposomes to Study the Effect of Lipids on HIV-1 - and -Infections

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among HIV-1-infected individuals and () co-infection is an early precipitate to AIDS. We aimed to determine whether strains differentially modulate cellular susceptibility to HIV-1 infection (- and -infection), via surface receptor interaction by their cell envelope lipids. Total lipids from pathogenic (lineage 4 H37Rv, CDC1551 and lineage 2 HN878, EU127) and non-pathogenic ( BCG and ) strains were integrated into liposomes mimicking the lipid distribution and antigen accessibility of the mycobacterial cell wall. The resulting liposomes were tested for modulating in vitro HIV-1 - and -infection of TZM-bl cells using single-cycle infectious virus particles. glycolipids did not affect HIV-1 direct infection however, -infection of both R5 and X4 tropic HIV-1 strains were impaired in the presence of glycolipids from , H37Rv and EU127 strains when using Raji-DC-SIGN cells or immature and mature dendritic cells (DCs) to capture virus. SL1, PDIM and TDM lipids were identified to be involved in DC-SIGN recognition and impairment of HIV-1 -infection. These findings indicate that variant strains of have differential effect on HIV-1 -infection with the potential to influence HIV-1 disease course in co-infected individuals.