Interleukin‐18 enhances HIV‐1 production in a human chronically‐infected T cell line (H9‐V)

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is a recently identified immunoregulatory cytokine expressed by activated macrophages, that induces production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and Th-1 development. Recently some investigators reported controversial in vitro data on IL-18 stimulation of HIV-1 replication in several cell lines. In the present study the effect of IL-18 on HIV replication in a human chronically HIV-1-infected lymphocytic T cell line (H9-V) was investigated. HIV-1 replication was determined by an immunoassay method in order to evaluate the content of p24 antigen in the cell culture supernatants. Stimulation of H9-V cells with IL-18 resulted in increased production of p24, especially at concentrations of 0.01 microg ml(-1) and 0.10 microg ml(-1). Moreover a significant and persistent IL-18 stimulation of HIV-1 replication was observed at a concentration of 0.01 microg ml(-1) during a 7-day period. Pre-treatment of IL-18 with a specific neutralizing monoclonal antibody significantly reduced HIV-1 replication. These experiments show that IL-18 promotes the increase of HIV-1 replication in human chronically-infected lymphocytic T cells and confirm the role of IL-18 as a proimflammatory cytokine in stimulating and maintaining HIV-1 replication during the course of the disease. In a successive set of experiments, since one of the main activities of IL-18 is the induction of IFN-gamma, we evaluated the effect of this biological modifier on H9-V cells. In particular, IFN-gamma shows a significant effect on cell replication and on reduction of CD4 and CD71 surface expression.