Construction of a high titer infectious HIV-1 subtype C proviral clone from South Africa
Date
2012-09-24
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtype C is currently the predominant subtype worldwide. Cell culture studies of Sub-Saharan African subtype C proviral plasmids are hampered by the low replication capacity of the resulting viruses, although viral loads in subtype C infected patients are as high as those from patients with subtype B. Here, we describe the sequencing and construction of a new HIV-1 subtype C proviral clone (pZAC), replicating more than one order of magnitude better than the previous subtype C plasmids. We identify the env-region for being the determinant for the higher viral titers and the pZAC Env to be M-tropic. This higher replication capacity does not lead to a higher cytotoxicity compared to previously described subtype C viruses. In addition, the pZAC Vpu is also shown to be able to down-regulate CD4, but fails to fully counteract CD317.
Description
CITATION: Jacobs, G. B. et al. 2012. Construction of a high titer infectious HIV-1 subtype C proviral clone from South Africa. Viruses, 4(9):1830-1843; doi:10.3390/v4091830.
The original publication is available at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses
The original publication is available at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses
Keywords
HIV-1 subtype C, Proviral plasmid, Viral replication, Resistance assays, Virusses -- Variations, HIV (Viruses ) -- Research
Citation
Jacobs, G. B. et al. 2012. Construction of a high titer infectious HIV-1 subtype C proviral clone from South Africa. Viruses, 4(9):1830-1843; doi:10.3390/v4091830.