AIF and Cell Death Pathway Interactions in Viral Infections

The apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) affects cell death from an alternate pathway than usual. AIF is involved in important pathways in diseases such as HIV and in early childhood development problems. AIF content in cells can be seen by the resistance the cells have to serum starvation and other types of cell death. We can use this as a marker for induced apoptosis, and run plates with varying levels of media, first in a control with normal amounts of AIF present in a healthy cell. To measure the changes in AIF, we ran the same plates with the cells, but had plasmids inserted for different proteins or protein inhibitors. We inhibited VDAC and upregulated Heat shock protein 70, both of which have been previously shown to have effects on AIF levels in virally infected cells. Cell death was monitored with an MTT assay to show the relationship between the proteins and change in AIF levels which could explain how HIV and other viruses might be targeting the pathways