Virology. 2010 Dec 5; 408(1):43478.

PubMed ID: 20863545

Replication competent molecular clones of HIV-1 expressing Renilla luciferase facilitate the analysis of antibody inhibition in PBMC

Edmonds TG, Ding H, Yuan X, Wei Q, Smith KS, Conway JA, Wieczorek L, Brown B, Polonis V, West JT, Montefiori DC, Kappes JC, Ochsenbauer C

Effective vaccine development for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) will require assays that ascertain the capacity of vaccine immunogens to elicit neutralizing antibodies (NAb) to diverse HIV-1 strains. To facilitate NAb assessment in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC)-based assays, we developed an assay-adaptable platform based on a Renilla luciferase (LucR) expressing HIV-1 proviral backbone. LucR was inserted into pNL4-3 DNA, preserving all viral open reading frames. The proviral genome was engineered to facilitate expression of diverse HIV-1 env sequences, allowing analysis in an isogenic background. The resulting Env-IMC-LucR viruses are infectious, and LucR is stably expressed over multiple replications in PBMC. HIV-1 neutralization, targeting TZM-bl cells, was highly correlative comparing virus (LucR) and cell (firefly luciferase) readouts. In PBMC, NAb activity can be analyzed either within a single or multiple cycles of replication. These results represent advancement toward a standardizable PBMC-based neutralization assay for assessing HIV-1 vaccine immunogen efficacy.