Assessing the Innate Sensing of HIV-1 Infected CD4⁺ T Cells by Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Using an Ex vivo Co-culture System.

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.