title: An infectious chimeric human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) expressing the HIV-1 principal neutralizing determinant.
abstract: The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 strain MN (HIV-1MN) principal neutralizing determinant (PND, V3 loop) was introduced into infectious molecular clones HIV-2KR and simian immunodeficiency virus mm239 (SIVmm239) by hybridization PCR, replacing the corresponding HIV-2 or SIV envelope cysteine loops with the HIV-1 coding sequence. The HIV-2 chimera (HIV-2KR-MNV3) was found to be capable of infecting a number of T-cell lymphoblastic cell lines as well as primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In contrast, the SIV chimera (SIV239MNV3) was not replication competent. Envelope produced by HIV-2KR-MNV3 but not the parental HIV-2KR was recognized by V3-specific and HIV-1-specific polyclonal antisera in radioimmunoprecipitation assays. HIV-2-specific antisera recognized both the chimeric and parental virus but not HIV-1MN. The chimeric HIV-2KR-MNV3 virus proved to be exquisitely susceptible to neutralization by HIV-1-specific and V3-specific antisera, suggesting the potential for use in animal models designed to test HIV-1 vaccine candidates which target the PND.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0665, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mamounas
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Looney
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Talbott
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wong-Staal
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002678:Chimera; D003545:Cysteine; D017931:DNA Primers; D015686:Gene Products, env / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015531:Radioimmunoprecipitation Assay / Q000379:methods; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000502:physiology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D015686:Gene Products, env; D003545:Cysteine