Browsing by Subject "HIV Reverse Transcriptase"

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    Functional stability of unliganded envelope glycoprotein spikes among isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).
    (PloS one, 2011-01) Agrawal, Nitish; Leaman, Daniel P; Rowcliffe, Eric; Kinkead, Heather; Nohria, Raman; Akagi, Junya; Bauer, Katherine; Du, Sean X; Whalen, Robert G; Burton, Dennis R; Zwick, Michael B
    The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) spike is challenging to study at the molecular level, due in part to its genetic variability, structural heterogeneity and lability. However, the extent of lability in Env function, particularly for primary isolates across clades, has not been explored. Here, we probe stability of function for variant Envs of a range of isolates from chronic and acute infection, and from clades A, B and C, all on a constant virus backbone. Stability is elucidated in terms of the sensitivity of isolate infectivity to destabilizing conditions. A heat-gradient assay was used to determine T(90) values, the temperature at which HIV-1 infectivity is decreased by 90% in 1 h, which ranged between ∼40 to 49°C (n = 34). For select Envs (n = 10), the half-lives of infectivity decay at 37°C were also determined and these correlated significantly with the T(90) (p = 0.029), though two 'outliers' were identified. Specificity in functional Env stability was also evident. For example, Env variant HIV-1(ADA) was found to be labile to heat, 37°C decay, and guanidinium hydrochloride but not to urea or extremes of pH, when compared to its thermostable counterpart, HIV-1(JR-CSF). Blue native PAGE analyses revealed that Env-dependent viral inactivation preceded complete dissociation of Env trimers. The viral membrane and membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of gp41 were also shown to be important for maintaining trimer stability at physiological temperature. Overall, our results indicate that primary HIV-1 Envs can have diverse sensitivities to functional inactivation in vitro, including at physiological temperature, and suggest that parameters of functional Env stability may be helpful in the study and optimization of native Env mimetics and vaccines.
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    Neutralization activity in a geographically diverse East London cohort of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients: clade C infection results in a stronger and broader humoral immune response than clade B infection.
    (J Gen Virol, 2010-11) Dreja, Hanna; O'Sullivan, Eithne; Pade, Corinna; Greene, Kelli M; Gao, Hongmei; Aubin, Keith; Hand, James; Isaksen, Are; D'Souza, Carl; Leber, Werner; Montefiori, David; Seaman, Michael S; Anderson, Jane; Orkin, Chloe; McKnight, Aine
    The array of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) subtypes encountered in East London, an area long associated with migration, is unusually heterogeneous, reflecting the diverse geographical origins of the population. In this study it was shown that viral subtypes or clades infecting a sample of HIV type 1 (HIV-1)-positive individuals in East London reflect the global pandemic. The authors studied the humoral response in 210 treatment-naïve chronically HIV-1-infected (>1 year) adult subjects against a panel of 12 viruses from six different clades. Plasmas from individuals infected with clade C, but also plasmas from clade A, and to a lesser degree clade CRF02_AG and CRF01_AE, were significantly more potent at neutralizing the tested viruses compared with plasmas from individuals infected with clade B. The difference in humoral robustness between clade C- and B-infected patients was confirmed in titration studies with an extended panel of clade B and C viruses. These results support the approach to develop an HIV-1 vaccine that includes clade C or A envelope protein (Env) immunogens for the induction of a potent neutralizing humoral response.