Fig. 1

METH enhances HIV infection of primary human monocytes. A–E Monocytes isolated from human peripheral blood were treated with METH for 24 h and then infected with HIV Bal strain overnight. Cells were washed with PBS three times and cultured in the presence of METH for 72 h. RNAs extracted from cells (A) and the cell-free supernatants (B) were subjected to the real-time PCR with HIV GAG gene primers. C, D Proteins of cells and culture supernatants were analyzed by Western blot using the antibodies against HIV proteins (p24 and Pr55Gag) and GAPDH. E The cell-free supernatants were subjected to ELISA assay to quantitatively determine p24 protein level. F Monocytes were treated with METH (150 μM) for 24 h and then infected with HIV Bal-eLuc overnight. Cells were washed with PBS three times and cultured in the presence of METH for 24 h or 48 h prior to luminescence assay. Data shown were the mean ± SD of three independent experiments with monocytes from three different donors (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01)