Open Accessenv Chimeric Virus Technology for Evaluating Human Immunodeficiency Virus Susceptibility to Entry Inhibitors
Author(s) -
Valery Fikkert,
Peter Cherepanov,
Kristel Van Laethem,
Anke Hantson,
Barbara Van Remoortel,
Christophe Pannecouque,
Erik De Clercq,
Zeger Debyser,
AnneMieke Vandamme,
Myriam Witvrouw
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.07
H-Index - 259
eISSN - 1070-6283
pISSN - 0066-4804
DOI - 10.1128/aac.46.12.3954-3962.2002
Subject(s) - gp41 , virology , clone (java method) , biology , virus , lentivirus , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , mutation , strain (injury) , genetics , antibody , viral disease , epitope , anatomy
We describe the development of chimeric virus technology (CVT) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 (HIV-1) env genes gp120, gp41, and gp160 for evaluation of the susceptibilities of HIV to entry inhibitors. This env CVT allows the recombination of env sequences derived from different strains into a proviral wild-type HIV-1 clone (clone NL4.3) from which the corresponding env gene has been deleted. An HIV-1 strain (strain NL4.3) resistant to the fusion inhibitor T20 (strain NL4.3/T20) was selected in vitro in the presence of T20. AMD3100-resistant strain NL3.4 (strain NL4.3/AMD3100) was previously selected by De Vreese et al. (K. De Vreese et al., J. Virol. 70:689-696, 1996). NL4.3/AMD3100 contains several mutations in its gp120 gene (De Vreese et al., J. Virol. 70:689-696, 1996), whereas NL4.3/T20 has mutations in both gp120 and gp41. Phenotypic analysis revealed that NL4.3/AMD3100 lost its susceptibility to dextran sulfate, AMD3100, AMD2763, T134, and T140 but not its susceptibility to T20, whereas NL4.3/T20 lost its susceptibility only to the inhibitory effect of T20. The recombination of gp120 of NL4.3/AMD3100 and gp41 of NL4.3/T20 or recombination of the gp160 genes of both strains into a wild-type background reproduced the phenotypic (cross-)resistance profiles of the corresponding strains selected in vitro. These data imply that mutations in gp120 alone are sufficient to reproduce the resistance profile of NL4.3/AMD3100. The same can be said for gp41 in relation to NL4.3/T20. In conclusion, we demonstrate the use of env CVT as a research tool in the delineation of the region important for the phenotypic (cross-)resistance of HIV strains to entry inhibitors. In addition, we obtained a proof of principle that env CVT can become a helpful diagnostic tool in assessments of the phenotypic resistance of clinical HIV isolates to HIV entry inhibitors.