Gp120 induced neurotoxicity – The influence of the chemokine receptor tropism

Degeneration of neurons and astrocytes mediated by soluble viral proteins and neurotoxins is an important factor involved in the pathogenesis of HAD. We investigated whether different soluble HIV-1 envelope proteins (X4, R5 and R5X4 tropic HIV-1 gp120) induced apoptosis in neurons and astrocytes. Here we show that this effect is influenced by the structure and chemokine receptor tropism of the different gp120 isoforms. We incubated neurons with soluble gp120 proteins differing in the V3 loop for 2h and 4h. Supernatant was added to astrocytes for 24h. Additionally, we blocked neurons with Anti-CXCR4- and Anti-CCR…