Protective Effect of Interferon-α Against Cell-Mediated Human Immunodeficiency Virus Transmission Resulting from Coculture of Infected Lymphocytes with Fetal Trophoblasts

The hypothesis that the low transmission rate of HIV in utero may be due, in part, to the protective effect of IFN-producing placental trophoblasts was explored in vitro. The model consisted of H9 lymphocytes, as surrogates of maternal HIV-infected T cells, incubated for 3 h with JEG-3 trophoblasts in the presence of 10-fold dilutions of leukocyte-derived IFN-α (from 1000 to 0.1 IU/ml). The dose effect was monitored either directly, by measuring the levels of proviral DNA by PCR after a single round of infection, or indirectly, by coculturing infected JEG-3 with cord blood-derived MT-4 lymphocytes and determining the levels of p24 production by ELISA. Both assays revealed a dose-dependent blocking effect of IFN-α on cell-mediated HIV transmission. The complete inhibition of HIV infection was observed in the presence of 100 IU IFN-α. The efficacy of such a low dose could not be attributed to insufficient viral load because up to 10⁸ infectious particles could be transmitted during cell-cell contact. An adhesion assay ruled out the possibility that IFN-α acts through prevention of lymphocyte-trophoblast contact. The results suggest that physiologic levels of IFN-α, present in the placental environment, may contribute to the protection of the fetus against HIV infection.