Short communication: Human blood dendritic cells are infected separately from monocytes in HIV type 1 patients

Monocytes serve as a systemic reservoir of myeloid precursors for the renewal of tissue macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs). Both monocytes and dendritic cells can be infected with HIV-1. Circulating DCs are believed to be derived from a common precursor of monocytes, or, in the case of inflammatory challenge, from monocytes directly. Because there are fewer infected blood monocytes than infected cells after differentiation, we hypothesized that the majority of HIV-1 infection in circulating DCs occurs via direct viral binding to their CD4 and coreceptors after differentiation. We isolated monocytes at one time point and circulating dendritic cells at a second time point from the blood of HIV-1-infected patients. Proviral DNA was isolated from DCs and monocytes, and the C2-V4 region of the HIV-1 env gene was cloned and sequenced. Phylogeny, nucleotide distances, and glycosylation patterns of the env gene were performed. The phylogenetic trees revealed that viral forms from the monocytes clustered distantly from the quasispecies derived from circulating DCs. The nucleotide distances and differing glycosylation patterns suggest that the infection of DCs is independent of the infection of the monocytes.