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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Pairwise Growth Competition Assay for Determining the Replication Fitness of Human Immunodeficiency Viruses
Published on: May 4, 2015
HIV-1 infection: functional competition between gp41 and interleukin-2
Kamel Sanhadji1, Jean-Claude Tardy, Jean-Louis Touraine
1Laboratoire des déficits immunitaires et d'immunovirologie, faculté de médecine RTH Laënnec, université Claude-Bernard-Lyon 1, 69372 Lyon cedex 08, France.
Abstract:
To determine whether the gp41 of HIV-1 could adhere to the interleukin (IL)-2 receptor at the surface of target cells in vitro, we analysed in vitro the possible functional competition between various forms of the HIV-1 gp41 molecule (i.e. peptides, trimeric or primary structures) and IL-2. This competition has been analysed in a test involving the proliferation of an IL-2-dependent cell line (CTLL2). The putative interaction between the IL-2 molecule and HIV-1 has also been assayed on MT4 cells (CD4(+) T lymphocytes) in culture. The gp41 trimeric molecule and an HIV-1 gp41 peptide (578-590 aminoacid sequence) dramatically inhibited CTLL2 cell proliferation, despite the presence of IL-2. The addition of serum, containing anti-gp41 antibodies, from HIV-1 patients resulted in a significant abolition of this inhibition. The concomitant incubation of IL-2 and HIV-1 with MT4 cells resulted in a strong decrease (70%) in HIV-1 p24 release. These data suggest that the gp41 of HIV-1 can use the IL-2 receptor during the process of HIV-1 infection and that there is some functional mimesis between gp41 and IL-2.
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