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TheScientificWorldJOURNAL
Volume 10 (2010), Pages 350-355
doi:10.1100/tsw.2010.34
Blood Cell Membrane Fluidity and Intracellular Ca2+ Changes in Antiretroviral-Naïve and -Treated HIV-1–Infected Patients
1Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
2Clinica Universitária de Doenças Infecciosas, Faculdade de Medicina Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
3Serviço de Infecciologia, Hospital de Santa Maria, Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, Lisboa, Portugal
Received 6 November 2009; Revised 31 January 2010; Accepted 2 February 2010
Academic Editor: Ana Salome Veiga
Copyright © 2010 Nuno C. Santos et al.
Abstract
We previously showed that lymphocytes and erythrocytes of HIV-1–infected patients, prior to antiretroviral therapy, presented significant changes in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]int) and membrane fluidity. The present study evaluates the same parameters after response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Blood samples were collected from patients prior to and after antiretroviral therapy, and from control subjects. Membrane fluidity and [Ca2+]int were assessed by fluorescence spectroscopy measurements, using three different probes: TMA-DPH and DPH for membrane fluidity, and fura-2 for Ca2+. When compared with the control group, both untreated and treated patients presented increased lymphocyte [Ca2+]int and decreased lymphocyte membrane fluidity, without significant differences between the two groups of patients. On the contrary, the therapy reversed the membrane fluidity variations observed in erythrocytes. The decreased erythrocyte [Ca2+]int of untreated patients was not reversed by HAART. AIDS patients present changes in lymphocyte (mostly noninfected) and erythrocyte properties, partially reversed by HAART, consistent with a process of facilitated propagation of the infection to new cells, stimulation of virion production, and maintenance of a reservoir of erythrocyte-bound infectious virus. These observations can be related with the action of the HIV Nef protein in the cell's proteins and lipid composition, as well as with the recently observed cell infection by HIV-1 via endocytosis.