AIDS Research and Therapy (Jan 2012)

Assessment of the range of the HIV-1 infectivity enhancing effect of individual human semen specimen and the range of inhibition by EGCG

  • Hartjen Philip,
  • Frerk Sebastian,
  • Hauber Ilona,
  • Matzat Verena,
  • Thomssen Adriana,
  • Holstermann Barbara,
  • Hohenberg Heinrich,
  • Schulze Wolfgang,
  • Schulze zur Wiesch Julian,
  • van Lunzen Jan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-6405-9-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
p. 2

Abstract

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Abstract Recently, it has been shown that human ejaculate enhances human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) infectivity. Enhancement of infectivity is conceived to be mediated by amyloid filaments from peptides that are proteolytically released from prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP), termed Semen-derived Enhancer of Virus Infection (SEVI). The aim of this study was to test the range of HIV-1 infectivity enhancing properties of a large number of individual semen samples (n = 47) in a TZM-bl reporter cell HIV infection system. We find that semen overall increased infectivity to 156% of the control experiment without semen, albeit with great inter- and intraindividual variability (range -53%-363%). Using transmission electron microscopy, we provide evidence for SEVI fibrils in fresh human semen for the first time. Moreover, we confirm that the infectivity enhancing property can be inhibited by the major green tea ingredient epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) at non-toxic concentrations. The median inhibition of infection by treatment with 0.4 mM EGCG was 70.6% (p

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