Unlike cell-free HIV-1 particles, infected CD4+ T cells are effectively sensed by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs). This manuscript describes a method where peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) or isolated pDCs are co-cultured with HIV-1 infected T cells to evaluate innate sensing by pDCs as assessed by release of type-I IFN.
Bego, M. G., Côté, É. A., Cohen, É. A. Assessing the Innate Sensing of HIV-1 Infected CD4+ T Cells by Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Using an Ex vivo Co-culture System.. J. Vis. Exp. (103), e51207, doi:10.3791/51207 (2015).