Abstract
Cholesterol is an essential component of the cellular membranes and, by extension, of the HIV envelope membrane, which is derived from the host cell plasma membrane. Depletion of the cellular cholesterol has an inhibitory effect on HIV assembly, reduces infectivity of the produced virions, and makes the cell less susceptible to HIV infection. It is not surprising that the virus has evolved to gain access to cellular proteins regulating cholesterol metabolism. One of the key mechanisms used by HIV to maintain high levels of cholesterol in infected cells is Nef-mediated inhibition of cholesterol efflux and the cholesterol transporter responsible for this process, ABCA1. In this chapter, we describe methods to investigate these effects of HIV-1 infection.