Figure 4.

Modulation of early and integrated HIV-1 DNA production by SLPI (A) or SERPIN C1 (B); MDMs (5 × 10⁵ cells/well) were pre-treated with (A) SLPI 1 µg/mL and 10 µg/mL or (B) SERPIN C1 0.05 µg/mL and 0.1 µg/mL for 3 h then infected with HIV-1 BaL 5 ng/mL p24 units. After 2 h, the virus was removed, and fresh culture media added with 1 µg/mL and 10 µg/mL SLPI or 0.05 µg/mL and 0.1 µg/mL SERPIN C1 and cultured. MDMs were collected 16 h after infection, and total DNA was extracted with the DNeasy tissue kit. Real-time PCR was performed with equal amounts of DNA and measured the amounts of early and late reverse transcription DNA products, as well as 2-LTR circle DNA. Levels of integrated viral DNA were measured by Alu-PCR. Effect of SLPI and SERPIN C1 on HIV-1 DNA production was determined by calculating the ratios of viral DNA amounts produced without SLPI or SERPIN C1 versus treatment with SLPI or SERPIN C1 in MDMs. Results expressed as mean ± SEM from three independent donors. Asterisk (*) over the bars indicates significant difference with control, ** p < 0.001; * p ≤ 0.05 and ns p > 0.05. p-values were generated by one-way ANOVA with multiple comparisons.