Difference in susceptibility to CC chemokines among HIV 1 isolates

Abstract

In this study, we examined the difference in susceptibility to anti HIV activity of the CC chemokines RANTES, MIP 1 alpha and MIP 1 beta among HIV 1 isolates and analysed its relation with phenotype syncytium inducibility and V3 domain of gp120 of the HIV 1 isolates. Of 11 cases tested in endogenous assay, at a concentration of 200 ng ml, RANTES, MIP 1 alpha, and MIP 1 beta showed more than 80 suppression of HIV 1 replication in 10, 8, and 7 cases, respectively. HIV 1 isolates sensitive to more than one CC chemokine showed non syncytium inducing phenotype, whereas HIV 1 isolates resistant to all of the 3 CC chemokines showed syncytium inducing phenotype. HIV 1 isolates resistant to all of the 3 CC chemokines contained more positively charged amino acid residues in the V3 domain of the gp120. These results indicated that utilization of the CC chemokine receptors as co receptors for virus entry could vary among HIV 1 isolates.