Influence of hydrogen peroxide on the in vitro infectivity of human immunodeficiency virus

The object of this study was to investigate the influence of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI), such as H2O2, on HIV-1 infection of cell cultures. The CD4+ HeLa human epithelial carcinoma cell line clone pBKTRLac was infected with HIV−1MN that had been treated with 0.01–5 mM H2O2. Virus infectivity was detected by 3 methods: (a) using transactivation of LTR-linked β-Galactosidase, (b) viral core p24 antigen enzyme-linked immunoasorbent assay (ELISA), and (c) reverse transcriptase activity assay. Treatment of HIV−1MN cell free virus particles with 0.01 mM H2O2 resulted in a significant increase in virus infection. This effect declined with increasing H2O2 concentrations from 0.05 to 0.1 mM. Further increases in H2O2 concentration up to 5 mM resulted in significant suppression in virus infection. These observations indicate that H2O2 may play a role in affecting the course of HIV infection.