The lymphocyte chemoattractant SDF-1 is a ligand for LESTR/fusin and blocks HIV-1 entry

CHEMOKINES are chemotactic cytokines that activate and direct the migration of leukocytes(1,2). There are two subfamilies, the CXC and the CC chemokines, We recently found that the CXC-chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1)(3,4) is a highly efficacious lymphocyte chemoattractant(5). Chemokines act on responsive leukocyte subsets through G-protein-coupled seven-transmembrane receptors', which are also used by distinct strains of HIV-1 as cofactors for viral entry. Laboratory-adapted and some T-cell-line-tropic (T-tropic) primary viruses use the orphan chemokine receptor LESTR/fusin (also known as fusin)(6-8), whereas macrophage-tropic primary HIV-1 isolates use CCR-5 and CCR-3 (refs 7-11), which are receptors for known CC chemokines, Testing of potential receptors demonstrated that SDF-1 signalled through, and hence 'adopted', the orphan receptor LESTR, which we therefore designate CXC-chemokine receptor-4 (CXCR-4). SDF-1 induced an increase in intracellular free Ca2+ and chemotaxis in CXCR-4-transfected cells. Because SDF-1 is a biological ligand for the HIV-1 entry cofactor LESTR, we tested whether it inhibited HIV-1, SDF-1 inhibited infection by T-tropic HIV-1 of HeLa-CD4 cells, CXCR-4 transfectants, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), but did not affect CCR-5-mediated infection by macrophage-tropic (M-tropic) and dual-tropic primary HIV-1.