Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are critical for antiviral immune responses by rapidly producing large amount of type 1 interferon, also pDCs mature to antigen presentation cells (APCs) upon viral stimulation and link the innate and adaptive immune responses.  Acumulated data suggest that pDCs are important in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and pathogenesis, but the exact functions of pDCs in HIV infection and AIDS progression is poorly understood.  

Lack of robust in vivo model hinders study of human pDC functions and its role in HIV infection. Dr.  Liguo Zhang at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dr. Lishan Su at the University of North Carolina recently reported that functional pDC developed in human hematopoietic stem cells transplanted Rag2？/？ γ C？/？ mice(humnaized mice).  They showed that pDCs from periphery and central lyphoid organs were productively infected by HIV.  Although CD4+ T cells were preferentially depleted,  pDCs were maintained in lymphoid organs. However, they were functionally impaired in HIV-infected humanzied mice. Moreover, HIV infection rapidly activated and impaired pDC functions in lymphoid organs, including the central lyphoid organ, bone marrow. The humanzied mice will serve as a relevant model to investigate the development and function of pDCs and their roles during HIV pathogenesis in vivo. These results may also shed new light on the development of a novel therapeutic intervention that targets pDCs.

This work was published in the latest issue of Blood  (2011,117(23):6184-6192) and entitled “Efficient infection, activation, and impairment of pDCs in the BM and peripheral lymphoid organs during early HIV-1 infection in humanized Rag2？/？γ C？/？ mice in vivo”.(http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/117/23/6184.long)