Implication of cell-in-cell structures in the transmission of HIV to epithelial cells
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Dear Editor,Chronic virus infection, such as infection by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis B/C virus (HBV/HCV)and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), constitutes major public health concerns.Although efforts in deciphering the mechanisms underlying their virological consequences have greatly improved clinical prevention and therapy, various challenges, such as virus tropism drifting, remain to be addressed to develop effective clinical interventions.While cell-free viruses usually infect target cells via binding to specific receptors, the presence of virions in non-susceptible cells has been reported with the mechanisms poorly understood ”1”.Recently, we reported that EBV could infect non-susceptible nasopharyngeal epithelial cells (ECs) through the formation of cell-in-cell structures between ECs and internalized B lymphocytes that have been infected with EBV.This novel mechanism was termed in-cell infection ”2”.Given the formation of similar heterotypic cell-in-cell structures between other EC-lymphocyte pairs, such as epithelial tumor cells and T lymphocytes ”3”, we wonder whether in-cell infection also plays a role in mediating transmission of other viruses.
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This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 81273197 and 81471578 to XNW, and 81472588 to QS, the National Basic Research Program of China 2015CB553704 to QS, the Pioneer Project for Young Scientist of Military Biomedicine 14QNP119 to QS, and the National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for ”Significant New Drugs Development” 2015ZX09501-009 to QS.