One of the highest transmission for HIV in children is mother's transmitting it through breast feeding. The transmission of HIV from mothers to children from breast feeding is one of the highest proportion of HIV infections in children. The transfer requires the virus across mucosal barriers. The DC-SIGN, a DC lectin receptor, interacts with the HIV and is found at high expression level in tonsillar tissues.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation, William Paxton and colleagues from the University of Amsterdam distinguish how human milk affects the HIV interactions with DC-SIGN that occurs during breastfeeding. It is shown that human milk can block the binding of HIV to the DC-SIGN molecule that is expressed on the dendritic cells and potently inhibit the transfer of HIV-1 to CD-4 + T-lymphocytes. The component is present in human milk binds to DC-SIGN. The inhibitory effect can be alleviated with an antibody that recognizes the Lewis X sugar is the inhibitor in this case.
Other major milk proteins do not bind the DC-SIGN nor inhibit the viral transfer. Their study and experimenting proves that the protein involved Lewis X is necessary and sufficent to interact with the DC-SIGN and prevent the interaction of DC-SIGn and HIV. The identification of human milk that can block HIV-1 transmission and the ability of the factor to inhibit the virus from binding DCs, and the potential immunomodulatory implications of such a compound has major implications for the development of agents that can block HIV transmission.
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