Dendritic Cells Enhance HIV Infection of Memory CD4(+) T Cells in Human Lymphoid Tissues

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a key role in controlling infections by coordinating innate and adaptive immune responses to invading pathogens. Paradoxically, DCs can increase HIV-1 dissemination in vitro by binding and transferring infectious virions to CD4(+) T cells, a process called transinfection. Transinfection has been well characterized in cultured cell lines and circulating primary T cells, but it is unknown whether DCs enhance infection of CD4(+) T cells in vivo. In untreated HIV infection, massive CD4(+) T-cell infection and depletion occur in secondary lymphoid tissues long before decline is evident in the peripheral circulation. To study the role of DCs in HIV infection of lymphoid tissues, we utilized human tonsil tissues, cultured either as tissue blocks or as aggregate suspension cultures, in single-round infection experiments. In these experiments, addition of monocyte-derived DCs (MDDCs) to the cultures increased T-cell infection, particularly in CD4(+) T cells expressing lower levels of HLA-DR. Subset analysis demonstrated that MDDCs increased HIV-1 infection of central and effector memory T-cell populations. Depletion of endogenous myeloid DCs (myDCs) from the cultures decreased memory T-cell infection, and readdition of MDDCs restored infection to predepletion levels. Using an HIV-1 fusion assay, we found that MDDCs equally increased HIV delivery into naïve, central, and effector memory T cells in the cultures, whereas predepletion of myDCs reduced fusion into memory T cells. Together, these data suggest that resident myDCs facilitate memory T-cell infection in lymphoid tissues, implicating DC-mediated transinfection in driving HIV dissemination within these tissues in untreated HIV/AIDS.