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. 2016 Aug 29;31(5):406–414. doi: 10.1007/s12250-016-3808-3

Ficolin-2 binds to HIV-1 gp120 and blocks viral infection

Fengling Luo 1, Tielong Chen 1,2, Jun Liu 1, Xihui Shen 3, Yinnan Zhao 1, Rongge Yang 3,✉, Xiaolian Zhang 1,✉
PMCID: PMC8193375  PMID: 27576476

Abstract

Ficolin-2 is a lectin complement pathway activator present in normal human plasma and usually associated with infectious diseases, but little is known about the role of ficolin-2 in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Here, we describe our novel findings that serum ficolin-2 concentrations of 103 HIV-1 patients were much higher compared to those of 57 healthy donors. In vitro analysis showed that HIV-1 infection could enhance ficolin-2 expression. We further demonstrated that recombinant ficolin-2 protein could bind with HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120, and subsequently induce complement dependent cytotoxicity. Moreover, ficolin-2 could block the entry of HIV-1 into target cells (TZM-b1 and MT-2 cells) and infection in a ficolin-2 dosedependent manner. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the protective role of ficolin-2 against HIV-1 infection and our study suggests that ficolin-2 is an important human innate immune molecule against HIV.

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Keywords: ficolin-2, HIV-1, gp120

Footnotes

ORCID: 0000-0002-6333-7941

ORCID: 0000-0002-8283-9381

Contributor Information

Rongge Yang, Phone: +86-27-87198736, FAX: +86-27-87198736, Email: ryang@wh.iov.cn.

Xiaolian Zhang, Phone: +86-27-68759986, FAX: +86-27-68759986, Email: zhangxiaolian@whu.edu.cn.

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