Brain-derived cells can be infected with HIV isolates derived from both blood and brain.

HIV type 1 and 2 isolates derived from brain and blood of infected individuals were used to infect astrocytic cells of tumor origin. Infection was monitored by polymerase chain reaction. The majority of the isolates infected the glioma cells, independently of the source of isolation. Added to the fact that the majority of primary HIV isolates infect cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage, these results indicate that primary blood and brain HIV strains have similar target cells. The production of virus from infected astrocytes was detected only upon infection with two macrophage-adapted strains. Also in this case, the number of infected cells was very low and only one in 5000 cells carried the proviral HIV genome.