Nonprimate animal models of HIV-1 infection are prevented by missing cellular

Nonprimate animal models of HIV-1 infection are prevented by missing cellular cofactors and by antiviral actions of species-specific host defense factors. lysates by fA3CH. HIV-1 molecular clones that encode FIV Vif or SIVmac Vif (HIV-1VF and HIV-1VS) were then constructed. These viruses replicated productively in HIV-1 receptor-expressing CrFK cells and could be passaged serially to uninfected cells. Thus, with the exception of entry receptors, the cat genome can supply the dependency factors AP26113 manufacture needed by HIV-1, and a main restriction can be countered by chimerism. The results raise the possibility that the domestic cat could yield an animal model of HIV-1 infection. To improve the relevance of macaque models to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)/AIDS research, simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) that contain various portions of HIV-1 have Rabbit polyclonal to beta Catenin AP26113 manufacture been developed, beginning with simian/human immunodeficiency viruses (SHIVs) that incorporated HIV-1 into SIVmac (83). More recently, HIV-1 clones in which only the gene or and capsid sequences from the SIVmac/SIVsm/HIV-2 lineage were introduced, which allowed the viruses to evade macaque intrinsic immunity defenses, were developed (23, 24, 30, 33). In a promising recent iteration, peak HIV-1 viremia in the range of 105 to 106 RNA copies/ml followed by gradually declining replication for approximately 6 months was achieved in pig-tailed macaques with a FIV and HIV-1 with intact (60, 61). fA3CH, the only two-domain feline A3 protein, is an unusual hybrid encoded by exons 1 to 3 of fA3Ca, exon 4 of fA3Cb, and exons 2 to 5 of fA3H (60). fA3H and fA3CH mediate hypermutation of wild-type HIV-1 (61). Whether fA3 proteins act through other mechanisms as well, whether any Vif protein of any lentivirus triggers fA3 degradation, or whether any Vif can protect HIV-1 against them has not been determined. In the present study, we analyzed the limits to HIV-1 propagation in a variety of feline cells. We characterized biochemical and virological properties of FIV, HIV-1, and SIVmac Vif proteins with respect to fA3Ca, fA3H, and fA3CH. We established that FIV Vif acts similarly to primate Vifs, by reducing A3 levels and preventing hypermutation. We demonstrated that productive, spreading replication of fully wild-type HIV-1 can be enabled in a feline cell line (CrFK) by stable in expression of FIV Vif, identifying fA3 proteins as the principal restriction to HIV-1 replication in these cells. We show further that SIVmac Vif can also interact with, degrade, and block hypermutation by fA3 proteins and that chimeric HIV-1 molecular clones that express either FIV Vif or SIVmac Vif can replicate and be continuously passaged in the HIV-1 receptor-complemented feline cells. The data establish that the feline genome can provide all dependency factors needed for HIV-1 replication once viral entry is enabled by expression of cell surface receptors. MATERIALS AND METHODS fA3 nomenclature. In the present work, we use the initial C/H/CH nomenclature for fA3 proteins (61) because of its verbal and lexical simplicity as well as to facilitate comparison with prior publications and fA3 sequence database information. fA3Ca, fA3H, and fA3CH correspond to suggested fA3Z2b, fA3Z3, and fA3Z2b-Z3 names in a recent proposal (39) that Z domain composition-based names of the type recently assigned by LaRue and colleagues to artiodactyl A3s (40) be henceforth used for all nonprimate A3s. AP26113 manufacture We concur with LaRue et al. (39).

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