%0 Journal Article %T Grape seed extract proanthocyanidins downregulate HIV- 1 entry coreceptors, CCR2b, CCR3 and CCR5 gene expression by normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells %A NAIR %A MADHAVAN P %A KANDASWAMI %A CHITHAN %A MAHAJAN %A SUPRIYA %A NAIR %A HARIKRISHNA N %A CHAWDA %A RAM %A SHANAHAN %A THOMAS %A SCHWARTZ %A STANLEY A %J Biological Research %D 2002 %I Sociedad de Biolog¨ªa de Chile %R 10.4067/S0716-97602002000300016 %X flavonoids and related polyphenols, in addition to their cardioprotective, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-allergic activities, also possess promising anti-hiv effects. recent studies documented that the £¿-chemokine receptors, ccr2b, ccr3 and ccr5, and the a-chemokine receptors, cxcr1, cxcr2 and cxcr4 serve as entry coreceptors for hiv-1. although flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds elicit anti-hiv effects such as inhibition of hiv-1 expression and virus replication, the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects remain to be clearly elucidated. we hypothesize that flavonoids exert their anti-hiv effects, possibly by interfering at the hiv co-receptor level. we investigated the effect of flavonoid constituents of a proprietary grape seed extract (gse) on the expression of hiv-1 coentry receptors by immunocompetent mononuclear leukocytes. our results showed that gse significantly downregulated the expression of the hiv-1 entry co-receptors, ccr2b , ccr3 and ccr5 in normal pbmc in a dose dependent manner. further , gse treated cultures showed significantly lower number of ccr3 positive cells as quantitated by flow cytometry analysis which supports rt-pcr gene expression data.investigations of the mechanisms underlying the anti-hiv-1 effects of grape seed extracts may help to identify promising natural products useful in the prevention and /or amelioration of hiv-1 infection %K pbmc %K peripheral blood mononuclear cells %K rt- pcr - reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction %K hiv-1 %K human immunodeficiency virus-1 gse %K - grape seed extract. %U http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0716-97602002000300016&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en