Expression of Human CD4 and chemokine receptors in cotton rat cells confers permissiveness for productive HIV infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Current small animal models for studying HIV-1 infection are very limited, and this continues to be a major obstacle for studying HIV-1 infection and pathogenesis, as well as for the urgent development and evaluation of effective anti-HIV-1 therapies and vaccines. Previously, it was shown that HIV-1 can infect cotton rats as indicated by development of antibodies against all major proteins of the virus, the detection of viral cDNA in spleen and brain of challenged animals, the transmission of infectious virus, albeit with low efficiency, from animal to animal by blood, and an additional increase in the mortality in the infected groups.

Results

Using in vitro experiments, we now show that cotton rat cell lines engineered to express human receptor complexes for HIV-

SUBMITTER: Blanco JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2689193 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature