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Article Addendum

Autophagy and CD4+ T lymphocyte destruction by HIV-1

Lucile Espert, Mélanie Denizot, Marina Grimaldi, Véronique Robert-Hebmann, Bernard Gay, Mihayl Varbanov, Patrice Codogno and Martine Biard-Piechaczyk

volume 3 | issue 1

January/February 2007
Pages: 32 - 34

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The first step of HIV-1 infection is mediated by the binding of envelope glycoproteins (Env) to CD4 and two major coreceptors, CCR5 or CXCR4. The HIV-1 strains that use CCR5 are involved in primo-infection (i.e., the early stages following a new infection), whereas those HIV-1 strains that use CXCR4 play a major role in the demise of CD4+ T lymphocytes and a rapid progression toward AIDS. Notably, binding of X4 Env expressed on cells to CXCR4 triggers apoptosis of uninfected CD4+ T cells. We now have just demonstrated that, independently of HIV-1 replication, transfected or HIV-1-infected cells that express X4 Env induce autophagy and accumulation of Beclin 1 in uninfected CD4+ T lymphocytes via CXCR4. Moreover, autophagy is a prerequisite to Env-induced apoptosis in uninfected bystander T cells, and CD4+ T cells still undergo an Env-mediated cell death with autophagic features when apoptosis is inhibited. To the best of our knowledge, these findings represent the first example of autophagy triggered through binding of virus envelope proteins to a cellular receptor, without viral replication, leading to apoptosis. Here, we proposed hypotheses about the significance of Env-induced Beclin 1 accumulation in CD4+ T cell death and about the role of autophagy in HIV-1 infected cells depending on the coreceptor involved.

Addendum to:
Autophagy is Involved in T Cell Death After Binding of HIV-1 Envelope Proteins to CXCR4
L. Espert, M. Denizot, M. Grimaldi, V. Robert-Hebmann, B. Gay, M. Varbanov, P. Codogno and M. Biard-Piechaczyk
J Clin Invest 2006; In press



We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.