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Updated: Apr 28, 2026

Assessing the Innate Sensing of HIV-1 Infected CD4+ T Cells by Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Using an Ex vivo Co-culture System.
Published on: September 1, 2015
DC-SIGN plays a stronger role than DCIR in mediating HIV-1 capture and transfer
1State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 44 Xiaohongshan Zhongqu, Wuhan 430071, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
The C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) expressed on dendritic cells (DCs), in particular DC-SIGN and DCIR, likely play an important role in HIV-1 early infection. Here, we systematically compared the capture and transfer capability of DC-SIGN and DCIR using a wide range of HIV-1 isolates. Our results indicated that DC-SIGN plays a stronger role than DCIR in DC-mediated HIV-1 capture and transfer. This was further strengthened by the data from transient and stable transfectants, showing that DC-SIGN had better capability, compared with DCIR in HIV-1 capture and transfer. Following constructing and analyzing a series of soluble DC-SIGN and DCIR truncates and chimeras, we demonstrated that the neck domain, but not the CRD, renders DC-SIGN higher binding affinity to gp120 likely via the formation of tetramerization. Our findings provide insights into CLR-mediated HIV-1 capture and transfer, highlighting potential targets for intervention strategies against gp120-CLR interactions.

