title: New clues to understanding HIV nonprogressors: low cholesterol blocks HIV trans infection.
abstract: A small percentage of HIV-infected subjects (2 to 15%) are able to control disease progression for many years without antiretroviral therapy. Years of intense studies of virologic and immunologic mechanisms of disease control in such individuals yielded a number of possible host genes that could be responsible for the preservation of immune functions, from immune surveillance genes, chemokines, or their receptors to anti-HIV restriction factors. A recent mBio paper by Rappocciolo et al. (G. Rappocciolo, M. Jais, P. Piazza, T. A. Reinhart, S. J. Berendam, L. Garcia-Exposito, P. Gupta, and C. R. Rinaldo, mBio 5:e01031-13, 2014) describes another potential factor controlling disease progression: cholesterol levels in antigen-presenting cells. In this commentary, we provide a brief background of the role of cholesterol in HIV infection, discuss the results of the study by Rappocciolo et al., and present the implications of their findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA vinayaka.prasad@einstein.yu.edu mbukrins@gwu.edu.
authors.forename: Vinayaka R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC, USA vinayaka.prasad@einstein.yu.edu mbukrins@gwu.edu.
authors.forename: Michael I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Bukrinsky
mesh_terms: D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol