Abstract
| - Many microbial coinfections accelerate the progression of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Coinfections of Plasmodium falciparum malaria and HIV-1 are common; however, past studies of the effects of P. falciparum malaria on HIV-1 infection have shown little effect. The present study found that P. falciparum antigens (PF-Ags) variably regulate the expression of HIV-1 coreceptors and modulate the infectability of CD4 cells by HIV-1. Shortly after PF-Ag stimulation, CCR5 expression was down-regulated, but CXCR4 expression was modestly up-regulated. Subsequently, CCR5 expression on CD4 cells was induced. Infectability of PF-Ag-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by R5 HIV-1 was decreased, regardless of the duration of PF-Ag stimulation or CCR5 expression levels. In contrast, X4 HIV-1 replication was enhanced briefly in PBMC stimulated with PF-Ags but was inhibited with longer stimulation. Decreased HIV-1 infectability resulted, in part, from endogenous production of interferon-γ. These results may explain why malaria previously did not appear to accelerate HIV-1 disease progression
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