Background
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains a global health challenge despite the use of antiretroviral therapy, which has led to a significant decline in the mortality rates. Owing to the unavailability of an effective treatment to completely eradicate the virus, researchers continue to explore new
Conclusion
Efavirenz and LLLT significantly reduced HIV infection in TZM-bl cells. Furthermore, the death of HIV infected cells was due to necrosis.
Methods
In the current study, LLLT was combined with efavirenz, an HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitor to establish their impact on HIV infection in TZM-bl cells. Both the HIV infected and uninfected cells were laser irradiated using a wavelength of 640 nm with fluencies of 2-10 J/cm2.
Results
The impact of HIV, efavirenz and irradiation were determined 24 h post irradiation using biological assays. Luciferase assay results showed that the combination of LLLT and efavirenz significantly reduced HIV infection in cells, despite the undesirable effects observed in the cells as demonstrated by cell morphology, proliferation and cell integrity assay. Flow cytometry results demonstrated that cell death was mainly through necrosis while fluorescence microscopy showed the production of reactive oxygen species in HIV infected cells.