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. 2017 Jan 17;7:40648. doi: 10.1038/srep40648

Figure 1. Cocaine enhances the transfer of HIV-1 from DCs to T-cells.

Figure 1

(a) HIV-1 transmission from DCs to T-cells by flow cytometry. Cocaine (1 μM) pre-treated or untreated DCs were incubated with HIV-1 BaL for 2 hours, then washed to remove free virus. Far-Red-labeled T-cells were added with or without 1 μM of cocaine. After 3 days, cells were harvested and stained with p24-FITC antibody (HIV-1 marker) and analyzed by flow cytometry. Far-Red-labeled T-cells were gated (left panel) and p24 positive Far-Red-labeled T-cells were quantitated. Upper right quadrants of center (untreated-UN) and right panels (cocaine treated) represent the percent of T-cells that have internalized HIV-1. (b) Fold change in HIV-1 transfer as described in (a) by considering untreated as 1. Data represent the mean ± SEM of 3 independent experiments done in triplicate for untreated T-cells vs. those treated with cocaine (p ≤ 0.01, 2-tailed t-test). (c) Quantification of p24 titer in the cell supernatants on day 1, 3 and 5 of DC to T-cell transfer assay as described in (a). (d) Quantification of p24 titer in the cell supernatants on day 1, 3 and 5 of T-cell to T-cell transfer assay as described in Methods. Data represent the mean ± SEM of 3 experiments done in triplicate for untreated cells vs. cells treated with cocaine (**p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001, 2-tailed t-test).