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Updated: Oct 4, 2026
Sex Differences in Mouse Hippocampal Astrocytes after In-Vitro Ischemia
Published on: October 25, 2016
HIV-1 Nef co-localizes with the astrocyte-specific cytoskeleton protein GFAP in persistently nef-expressing human
B Kohleisen1, P Hutzler, E Shumay
1GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Molecular Virology, Neuherberg, Germany.
Abstract:
In T-cells HIV-1 Nef exerts various functions and interacts with actin. In astrocytes interaction of Nef with cellular proteins is poorly understood. Therefore, human astrocytic cell clones stably transfected with nef-genes derived from HIV-1 Bru and its myristoylation-defective TH-variant were investigated by confocal laser scanning microscopy for expression of Nef and cytoskeleton proteins actin and GFAP, a marker for activated astrocytes. Myristoylated Nef was detected in cytoplasm, Golgi and plasmamembrane, while non-myristoylated Nef was exclusively cytoplasmic. Nef co-localised with GFAP in the perinuclear region of astrocytes. In contrast, Nef did not interact with actin filaments in human astrocytes. Nef/GFAP interaction could contribute to changes in morphology and activation state of astrocytes shown previously which are both critical for development of astrogliosis in HIV-1 infected brain.
