Expression of Human CD4 and chemokine receptors in cotton rat cells confers permissiveness for productive HIV infection.
BACKGROUND
Current small animal models for studying HIV-1 infection are very limited, and this continues to be a major obstacle for studying HIV-1 infection and pathogenesis, as well as for the urgent development and evaluation of effective anti-HIV-1 therapies and vaccines. Previously, it was shown that HIV-1 can infect cotton rats as indicated by development of antibodies against all major proteins of the virus, the detection of viral cDNA in spleen and brain of challenged animals, the transmission of infectious virus, albeit with low efficiency, from animal to animal by blood, and an additional increase in the mortality in the infected groups.


RESULTS
Using in vitro experiments, we now show that cotton rat cell lines engineered to express human receptor complexes for HIV-1 (hCD4 along with hCXCR4 or hCCR5) support virus entry, viral cDNA integration, and the production of infectious virus.


CONCLUSIONS
These results further suggest that the development of transgenic cotton rats expressing human HIV-1 receptors may prove to be useful small animal model for HIV infection.
Virion Systems Inc,, 9610 Medical Center Drive, Suite 100, Rockville, Maryland 20850, USA. jblanco@virionsystems.com
Jorge C G
JC
Blanco
Lioubov M
LM
Pletneva
Lindsay
L
Wieczorek
Dimple
D
Khetawat
Tzanko S
TS
Stantchev
Christopher C
CC
Broder
Victoria R
VR
Polonis
Gregory A
GA
Prince
D000818:Animals; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D002460:Cell Line; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015728:Receptors, HIV / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016205:Sigmodontinae; D053586:Virus Internalization; D014779:Virus Replication
D015704:CD4 Antigens; D015728:Receptors, HIV; D011994:Recombinant Proteins