In vitro infection of primate PBMC with simian/human immunodeficiency virus, SHIV _SF33A: Correlation to in vivo outcome

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.