<i>In vitro</i> infection of primate PBMC with simian/human immunodeficiency virus, SHIV_SF33A: Correlation to <i>in vivo</i> outcome

Abstract

Abstract: The macaque/SIV animal system is an important model for studying AIDS pathogenesis and for evaluating the efficacy of vaccines and anti‐viral therapeutics. However, differences between HIV‐1 and SIV envelope proteins exist that render the SIV/macaque model of limited value when examining envelope determinants of retroviral pathogenesis. To overcome this problem, we utilized a chimeric virus, SHIV SF33 , containing the env gene from HIV‐1 SF33 in the context of the molecular clone SIV mac239 , in the macaque animal model. In this study SHIV SF33A , a pathogenic virus that evolved in vivo from a rhesus macaque infected intravenously with the molecular clone SHIV SF33 was used in both in vitro and in vivo studies. By using a cell culture system, we examined the biological properties of our parental and animal‐adapted chimeric viruses and compared in vitro susceptibility to in vivo studies.