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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2007, p. 477-487, Vol. 45, No. 2
0095-1137/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.01708-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan,1 Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan2
Received 17 August 2006/ Returned for modification 25 October 2006/ Accepted 11 December 2006
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The other approach to drug resistance assays is phenotyping. In this method, the levels of drug resistance of patient-derived viral isolates are evaluated by using in vitro bioassays (17, 26). Two advantages of the phenotyping assay are its ability to directly evaluate the drug susceptibilities of patient-derived viruses and the ease of interpreting its results compared to those from genotyping. This assay is especially useful in cases with a high degree of exposure to antiretroviral drugs, therefore involving many mutations. In these cases, the evaluation of resistance levels by genotyping alone may be difficult (35). In addition, the resistance levels determined by phenotyping provide important information for updating interpretation algorithms used in genotyping.
Although peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are the natural target of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and hence are the best candidates for host cells in phenotyping assays, reporter cell systems are more commonly used in drug susceptibility assays (1, 12, 15, 31). Reporter systems are preferred because their susceptibility to HIV-1 is stable and their output is both rapidly measured and highly reproducible compared to that of PBMC assays. Several kinds of reporter cells have been used with different reporter proteins, such as MAGI cells with ß-galactosidase (21), GHOST cells with enhanced green fluorescent protein (36), MOCHA cells with secreted alkaline phosphatase (24), and CEM.NKR-CCR5-Luc cells with luciferase (31). Although these systems use different cell lines, their basic strategies for evaluating HIV infectivity are similar (21, 36). The cell lines carry a reporter protein gene regulated by the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) promoter, inducing them to produce the reporter protein when they are infected with HIV-1. Which reporter system is used depends on the properties of the original cell line and the installed reporter protein.
Reporter systems using MAGI and GHOST cells have the advantages of high sensitivity and rapidity in determining infectivity. However, MAGI and GHOST cells have been established from HeLa cells (21) and human osteosarcoma cells (36), respectively, which are not naturally susceptible to HIV-1. Therefore, these cells cannot propagate viruses efficiently. On the other hand, MOCHA and CEM.NKR-CCR5-Luc cell lines were established from T-cell lines and secreted alkaline phosphatase and luciferase, respectively, were installed as reporters. These reporter systems allow for the evaluation of HIV-1 infectivity by using enzymatic reactions and demonstrate greater reproducibility with wider dynamic ranges of reporter proteins. However, for these cells to produce sufficient reporter protein for accurate determinations, they must be cultured for 5 to 7 days, longer than MAGI and GHOST cells. Longer culture periods allow reporter cells to divide, which may affect the accuracy of the quantification.
Given the advantages and limitations of previously constructed reporter cell lines, we designed and tested two new reporter cell lines with dual chemokine receptors for use in drug resistance phenotypic assays and other HIV infectivity assays. The cell lines we designed have unique characteristics in that they originate from the human T-cell line HPB-Ma (16, 29, 40) and were engineered to express the CCR5 receptor and two different marker proteins, firefly luciferase (FL) and renilla luciferase (RL). FL, which is under HIV-1 LTR promoter regulation, is produced upon HIV-1 infection. Therefore, firefly luciferase activity can be used as a marker for virus infectivity. RL, which is under cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter control, is constitutively expressed in the cells. Therefore, renilla luciferase activity can be used as a marker for cell number and viability.
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The second luciferase construct, pRenillaPac, was constructed using the plasmid pPUR (Clontech). The PCR-amplified RL gene, derived from phRL-CMV (Promega), was spliced into the upstream region of the pac gene. This hybrid gene manifests both RL activity and resistance to puromycin. Expression of the fusion gene was constitutive under the control of a CMV promoter.
A CCR5 expression vector, pCCR5/CEP4, was constructed based on the pCEP4 expression vector (Invitrogen), which possesses the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 episomal-expression gene. The CCR5 gene was inserted into the vector by using NotI and SnaB I restriction sites on the vector. Expression of the CCR5 gene was constitutive under the control of a CMV promoter.
Selection of host cell line and establishment of new reporter cell lines. To design new reporter cell lines for quantifying HIV-1 replication, we selected the murine leukemia virus-transformed human T-cell line HPB-Ma, established by Y. K. Shimizu and H. Yoshikura (16, 29, 40), because of its high susceptibility to HIV-1 and its stable expression of CD4 and CXCR4. HPB-Ma cells were maintained at 37°C in 5% CO2 in complete RPMI 1640 medium (Sigma, Tokyo, Japan) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (HyClone, Logan, UT) and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (Invitrogen, Tokyo, Japan). Cells were transfected by electroporation with the two luciferase expression vectors, 53LTRN-lucneor#1 and pRenillaPac. Plasmid DNA (10 µg) was mixed with HPB-Ma cells (5 x 106 cells in 500 µl phosphate-buffered saline), and the mixture was incubated for 5 min at 4°C and electropulsed with a Gene Pulser II apparatus (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) at 250 V and 950 µF. After electroporation, the cells were resuspended in complete medium and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2. Subsequently, cells with incorporated plasmids were selected with 0.1 µg/ml puromycin (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA) and 250 µg/ml Geneticin (Invitrogen), maintained in complete medium for several weeks, and enriched with cell populations expressing high levels of CD4 and CXCR4 by fluorescence-activated cell sorting with a FACSVantage system (BD Biosciences). Finally, clones were generated by limiting dilution and selected if they showed high sensitivity to HIV-1 and low spontaneous expression of FL and DsRed.
Since the parent HPB-Ma cell line expresses only the CXCR4 receptor, we extended the spectrum of the reporter cell lines to include R5-tropic viral isolates by transfecting cells by electroporation with a CCR5 expression plasmid. Clones were selected by incubating for several weeks with 0.1 µg/ml puromycin, 250 µg/ml Geneticin, and 150 µg/ml hygromycin B. Selected cells were recloned, and the expression of cell surface markers was confirmed by using FACSCaliber (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). CD4, CXCR4, and CCR5 receptors were stained with SK-3-Cy5.5, 12G5-phycoerythrin, and 2D7-fluorescein isothiocyanate monoclonal antibodies, respectively (all from BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA).
Evaluation of introduced reporter gene functions. To confirm the ability of FL activity to reliably measure virus titer and production, established cell lines were plated into 96-well plates at 105 cells per well and inoculated with 50 to 400 50% tissue culture infective doses (TCID50) of HXB2 or JRCSF. After 7 days of culture with the test viruses, cells were harvested and lysed in 75 µl of luciferase assay reagent. FL activity was quantified using a Dual-Glo luciferase reporter assay system (Promega, Madison, WI) and an LMax microplate luminometer (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). Virus production was also quantified by using the p24 antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay RETROtek kit (ZeproMetrix Co., Buffalo, NY) and compared with FL activity.
The validity of using RL activity to monitor MaRBLE cell numbers was evaluated by measuring RL activity in various numbers of cells and determining the correlation between RL activity and cell numbers. The correlation between RL activity and cell viability was also confirmed in cell killing assays with two anticancer drugs, hygromycin B (Invitrogen, Tokyo, Japan) and blasticidin S (Funakoshi, Tokyo, Japan). Target cells were plated into 96-well plates at 105 cells per well, and hygromycin B (15.6 to 500 µg/ml) and blasticidin S (1.25 to 20 µg/ml) were added. After 7 days of culture, cells were harvested and RL activity was measured by using the Dual-Glo luciferase reporter assay system (Promega) and the percentage of cell killing was determined by trypan blue staining.
Preparation of recombinant and patient-derived viruses. Recombinant viruses with point mutations were constructed as described elsewhere (25). In brief, drug resistance mutations were introduced into the RT and protease genes of the HXB2 clone by site-directed mutagenesis (28). MT-2 cells (5 x 106 human T-lymphoblastoid cells) were then transfected by electroporation with the recombinant virus plasmids, and the cells were maintained in 10 ml of complete medium for 7 to 14 days. Half the culture supernatant was harvested and replaced with fresh medium every other day. Viral replication was monitored by measuring RT activity in the supernatant, and the sample with the highest RT activity was used in subsequent studies.
Eight clinical samples were selected randomly from patient blood specimens sent for routine HIV-1 drug resistance testing to the AIDS Research Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan. Patient viruses were isolated by a standard coculture method described elsewhere (18). In brief, 2 x 107 patient PBMC were mixed with the same number of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated normal human PBMC and the mixture was cultured for 2 weeks. Half the culture supernatant was collected and replaced with the same amount of fresh culture medium every other day. Viral replication was monitored by measuring RT activity in the supernatant, and the sample with peak RT activity was selected and used for infection experiments afterward. RT assays were performed as previously described (37). Viral RNAs in collected supernatants were sequenced, and drug resistance mutation patterns were determined.
For the reconstructed virus, viral RNA was extracted from 200 µl of patient plasma by using a High Pure viral RNA kit (Roche, Basel, Switzerland) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Subsequently, a 1.8-kb gag-pol fragment, encoding the region from p2gag to whole protease, and the 5' half of the RT gene fragment were amplified and inserted into the HXB2 backbone. MT-2 cells (5 x 106) were then transfected by electroporation with the plasmid, and the cells were maintained in 10 ml of complete medium for 7 to 14 days. Half the culture supernatant was harvested and replaced with fresh medium every other day. Viral replication was monitored by measuring RT activity in the supernatant, and the sample with the highest RT activity was selected for use in subsequent studies. Viral RNAs in collected supernatants were sequenced, and the drug resistance mutation patterns were confirmed. For both the patient-derived and reconstructed viruses, HIV infectivity (TCID50) in the target cell lines was assayed by the Reed-Muench method (27).
Drug resistance genotyping. HIV-1 RNA was extracted from 200 µl of patient plasma using a High Pure viral RNA kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. For amplification of the 500-bp protease gene fragment, DRPRO5 (5'-AGA-CAG-GYT-AAT-TTT-TTA-GGG-A) and DRPRO2L (5'-TAT-GGA-TTT-TCA-GGC-CCA-ATT-TTT-GA) were used for reverse transcription and the first PCR and DRPRO1M (5'-AGA-GCC-AAC-AGC-CCC-ACC-AG) and DRPRO6 (5'-ACT-TTT-GGG-CCA-TCC-ATT-CC) were used for the second PCR. For amplification of the 800-bp RT gene fragment, DRRT1L (5'-ATG-ATA-GGG-GGA-ATT-GGA-GGT-TT) and DRRT4L (5'-TAC-TTC-TGT-TAG-TGC-TTT-GGT-TCC) were used for reverse transcription and the first PCR and DRRT7L (5'-GAC-CTA-CAC-CTG-TCA-ACA-TAA-TTG-G) and DRRT6L (5'-TAA-TCC-CTG-CAT-AAA-TCT-GAC-TTG-C) were used for the second PCR. The amplicons were purified by using a MultiScreen PCR filter plate (Millipore), and sequence reactions were performed by using the BigDye Terminator v3.1 cycle sequencing kit, followed by electrophoresis using an ABI-3730 auto sequencer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA).
HIV-1 replication kinetics analyses and drug susceptibility assays. To analyze the replication kinetics of clinically derived HIV-1 isolates, target cells were plated into 96-well plates at 105 cells per well and infected with 100 TCID50 of test viruses per well. At days 3, 5, and 7, the culture supernatant of each well was collected and RT activity was measured as previously described (37).
To evaluate anti-HIV-1 drug susceptibility, 107 cells were infected with 10,000 TCID50 of wild-type control or test viruses in 50-ml tubes and incubated for 2 h at 37°C. Infected cells were resuspended in culture medium and plated into 96-well plates at 105 cells per well. At 2 and 48 h after infection, serial RT inhibitor dilutions and serial protease inhibitor (PI) dilutions were added, respectively. Each drug was prepared in a fivefold serial dilution and tested over different dose ranges, as follows. Didanosine, abacavir, and nevirapine were tested at concentrations from 25.0 x 101 µm to 3.2 x 104 µM. Lamivudine and stavudine were tested at concentrations from 5.0 x 101 µm to 6.4 x 105 µM. Zidovudine, zalcitabine, and the five PIs (saquinavir, indinavir, nelfinavir, lopinavir, and amprenavir) were tested at concentrations from 1.0 x 101 µm to 12.8 x 106 µM. Efavirenz was tested at concentrations from 0.2 x 101 µm to 25.6 x 107 µM. All samples were tested in triplicate. The following manufacturers kindly supplied anti-HIV drugs: GlaxoSmithKline, Middlesex, United Kingdom (zidovudine, lamivudine, and abacavir); Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York, NY (didanosine, stavudine, and efavirenz); Roche, Basel, Switzerland (zalcitabine and saquinavir); Boehringer Ingelheim, Ingelheim, Germany (nevirapine); Merck Research Laboratories, Rahway, NJ (indinavir); Japan Tobacco, Tokyo, Japan (nelfinavir); Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA (amprenavir); and Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL (lopinavir).
After 7 days of culture with test drugs and test viruses, cells were harvested and lysed in 75 µl of luciferase assay reagent. Firefly and RL activities were sequentially quantified using a dual-luciferase reporter assay system (Promega) and an LMax microplate luminometer (Molecular Devices). Data were displayed by plotting the percentage of luciferase activity versus the log10 drug concentration. The concentration at which 50% of viral replication was inhibited (IC50) was determined by plotting curves defined by the four-parametric sigmoidal equation f(x) = A + ([B A])/(1 + [C/x]D) using XLfit4 software (CTC Laboratory Systems Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). To determine susceptibility or resistance, results for test viruses were compared to those for wild-type HIV-1 and evaluated by Student's t test.
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Since the parent HPB-Ma cell line expresses only CXCR4, the spectrum of the X4-MaRBLE cell line was extended to include R5-tropic viruses by transfection with a CCR5 expression plasmid, thus establishing the R5-MaRBLE cell line. Expression levels of CD4 were comparable among the parent HPB-Ma, X4-MaRBLE, and R5-MaRBLE cell lines (Fig. 1a to c), whereas the proportion of CXCR4-positive cell populations and CXCR4 expression levels were slightly higher in X4- and R5-MaRBLE cells than in the parent HPB-Ma cell line (Fig. 1d to f). This difference is due to the cell sorter's selecting for populations expressing high levels of CXCR4. As for CCR5 expression, HPB-Ma and X4-MaRBLE cells did not significantly express the receptor (Fig. 1g and h). On the other hand, more than 76% of the R5-MaRBLE cell population expressed CCR5 (Fig. 1i).
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FIG. 1. Levels of expression of CD4, CXCR4, and CCR5 in parent HPB-Ma cells and X4-MaRBLE and R5-MaRBLE cells. Parent HPB-Ma (a, d, g), X4-MaRBLE (b, e, h), and R5-MaRBLE (c, f, i) cells were stained with monoclonal antibodies to CD4 (a, b, c), CXCR4 (d, e, f), and CCR5 (g, h, i). To calculate the percentage of each population positive for the expression of cytokine receptors (bars), 2,000 to 5,000 cells were analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. To calculate the percentage of each population positive for expression of CD4 and cytokine receptors (bar), 2,000 to 5,000 cells were analyzed by FACSCalibur and compared with fluorescence-negative control cells. Histograms with gray shading indicate cell populations stained with each monoclonal antibody; histograms without shading indicate negative control populations.
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FIG. 2. FL reporter activity in MaRBLE cells accurately represents viral production\chatn. (a) X4-MaRBLE cells are susceptible to HXB2 (X4-tropic) but not JRCSF (R5-tropic) viruses. FL activity was confirmed as a reliable measure of X4-tropic HIV-1 in X4-MaRBLE cells by inoculating the cells with various amounts of HXB2 or JRCSF and reading FL activity 7 days later. Solid and dashed lines indicate HXB2 and JRCSF, respectively. (b) R5-MaRBLE cells are susceptible to both HXB2 (X4-tropic) and JRCSF (R5-tropic) viruses. FL activity was confirmed as a reliable measure of X4- and R5-tropic HIV-1 in R5-MaRBLE cells by inoculating the cells with various amounts of HXB2 or JRCSF and reading FL activity 7 days later. Solid and dashed lines indicate HXB2 and JRCSF, respectively. (c) FL activity and the amount of capsid antigen p24 are correlated in HIV-infected MaRBLE cells. The reliability of using FL activity instead of the amount of p24 to quantify HIV-1 production was evaluated by measuring intracellular FL activity and the amount of p24 antigen in the supernatant from the same culture. Solid, dashed, and dotted lines indicate HXB2-infected X4-MaRBLE cells, HXB2-infected R5-MaRBLE cells, and JRCSF-infected R5-MaRBLE cells, respectively. Percentages of FL activity and of p24 production were calculated from the following formula: percentage = (observed value with the drug background value)/(observed value without the drug background value) x 100. RU, relative units.
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FIG. 3. Constitutively expressed RL in MaRBLE cells provides a reliable measure of cell number and viability. (a) RL activity accurately indicates MaRBLE cell numbers. The validity of using RL activity to monitor MaRBLE cell numbers was evaluated by measuring RL activity in various numbers of cells and plotting the corresponding values. RL activity and cell number were positively and linearly correlated (r2 = 0.99). (b and c) RL activity reliably indicates hygromycin B and blasticidin S cytotoxicity in MaRBLE cells. The reliability of RL activity as a marker of cytotoxicity was evaluated for hygromycin B (b) and blasticidin S HCl (c). Cells were cultured for 1 week with serial dilutions of each drug and lysed, and their RL activities were determined. In graphs in both panels b and c, solid lines represent the RL activities of cell lysates and dashed lines indicate percentages of dead cells as determined by trypan blue staining. RU, relative units.
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FIG. 4. Clinically derived isolates replicate in R5-MaRBLE cells as efficiently as in PBMC. The replication kinetics of two clinical isolates, 8 and 9, were compared after inoculation into both R5-MaRBLE cells and human PBMC. (a) Replication kinetics of isolate 8. Open and closed triangles indicate kinetics in R5-MaRBLE cells and PBMC, respectively. (b) Replication kinetics of isolate 9. Open and closed circles indicate kinetics in R5-MaRBLE cells and PBMC, respectively. cpm, counts per minute.
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FIG. 5. Results of assays for HIV-1 drug susceptibility with MaRBLE reporter cell lines are highly reproducible. Dose-response curves for four representative agents against wild-type HXB2 and JRCSF are shown. Solid and dotted lines indicate HXB2 and JRCSF, respectively. (a to d) Results of assays for susceptibility to zidovudine, lamivudine, efavirenz, and lopinavir, respectively, using X4-MaRBLE cells. (e to h) Results of assays for susceptibility to zidovudine, lamivudine, efavirenz, and lopinavir, respectively, using R5-MaRBLE cells. The percentage of inhibition was calculated as follows: percentage = (observed FL activity with the drug background FL activity)/(FL activity without the drug background FL activity) x 100.
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TABLE 1. Susceptibility of wild-type HXB2 and JRCSF to representative antiretrovirals as determined using X4- and R5-MaRBLE cells
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D67N/K70R < M41L/T215Y < M41L/D67N/K70R/T215Y. Thus, zidovudine resistance increased with the accumulation of thymidine analogue mutations (TAMs), and the M184V mutation caused reversion to the zidovudine resistance phenotype in the M41L/T215Y mutant, with a change in the susceptibility level of 12.5- to 3.5-fold relative to that of the wild-type virus, similar to results in previous reports (11, 19). Two clones with the M184V mutation demonstrated over 500-fold (>533.7- and >1,339.3-fold)-greater resistance to lamivudine but no significant resistance to didanosine and zalcitabine, although M184V has been reported to confer a three- to fivefold increase in the level of resistance (14). Our data confirm the recent revalidation of using didanosine for cases involving the M184V mutation (39). Low-level but significant stavudine resistance in M41L/T215Y (change, 2.2-fold), M41L/M184V/T215Y (change, 2.9-fold), and M41L/D67N/K70R/T215Y (change, 3.8-fold) was found, consistent with data from previous reports (22, 33). All five clones demonstrated significant resistance to abacavir. The highest resistance was observed in the M41L/M184V/T215Y mutant, consistent with findings in previous reports that TAMs with M184V reduce susceptibility to abacavir 10-fold (1). |
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TABLE 2. Drug resistance levels associated with NRTI resistance mutations as determined using X4-MaRBLE cells infected with HIV-1 clones
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TABLE 3. Drug resistance levels associated with NNRTI resistance mutations as determined using X4-MaRBLE cells infected with HIV-1 clones
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TABLE 4. Drug resistance levels of PI-resistant mutants analyzed using HIV-1-infected X4-MaRBLE cells
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TABLE 5. Susceptibilities of seven patient-derived viral isolates to representative drugs assayed using R5-MaRBLE cells
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Isolate 6 had accumulated six TAMs in RT and showed 224.0-fold-higher resistance to zidovudine. This isolate had E44D and V118I mutations (low-level-lamivudine-resistance mutations) and showed 6.7-fold-higher resistance to lamivudine. Similar to those in cases 3 to 5, the virus in case 6 had M41L, V118I, L210W, and T215Y mutations and demonstrated slight hypersusceptibility to efavirenz (change, 0.4-fold). As for the protease region, isolate 6 had three major mutations, M46I, I84V, and L90M, and six minor resistance mutations. Of these nine mutations, eight were listed as lopinavir resistance mutations, and intermediate-level resistance to lopinavir (change, 14.6-fold) was observed. Isolate 7R had K103N and showed high-level resistance to efavirenz (change, 66.8-fold). No other drug resistance mutations in the RT region were found, and thus the isolate was susceptible to zidovudine and lamivudine. The protease region did show two minor mutations, L63C and V77I, and the isolate was susceptible to lopinavir.
Thus, the increases observed in levels of resistance to zidovudine and lopinavir were associated with the accumulation of known resistance mutations associated with those drugs. Similarly, hypersusceptibility to efavirenz was associated with the accumulation of M41L, V118I, L210W, and T215Y mutations in four out of six clinical isolates (30). Taken together, these results confirm the reliability of using X4- and R5-MaRBLE cells in drug resistance phenotyping.
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Finally, two types of new reporter cell lines were established, X4-MaRBLE and R5-MaRBLE. As expected, these new cell lines had several advantages over previously described cell lines. First, viruses efficiently propagated in these cell lines, making multiple-round replication assays possible. In addition, viruses could be isolated from patient plasma and PBMC by using the cell lines. Since other reporter cells may not allow replication-competent viruses to be efficiently produced, their use is largely limited to single-cycle replication assays. These assays are currently accepted as the major method for measuring viral infectivity due to their rapid readout of results. However, single-cycle replication assays cannot evaluate the postintegration late phase of the viral life cycle. To evaluate late-phase inhibitors, such as PIs, by using single-cycle replication assays, an additional step is required prior to the assay to produce viruses under test drug pressure. On the other hand, multiple-round replication assays allow late-phase inhibitors to be directly evaluated, just as early-phase inhibitors, without additional culture. Furthermore, multiple-round replication assays allow for a clearer readout of drug susceptibility, as the differences in drug susceptibilities between the reference and test viruses may be amplified by each round of replication.
Second, the cell lines were successfully transfected with RL to broaden their application. The constitutive expression of this second luciferase in the cell line has made it possible to easily and accurately evaluate cell number and the cytotoxicities of test compounds. As we planned to conduct multiple rounds of assays, the cells were cultured for at least a week, long enough for them to propagate and increase the background level of FL. The extent of this increase depended on the amount of viral inocula or the level of inhibition by antiretroviral agents. By monitoring RL activity, we could easily evaluate culture conditions and their effects on assay results.
These two characteristics confer a great advantage to using the MaRBLE cell lines for screening new antiretroviral agents. They allow both early- and late-phase inhibitor candidates to be evaluated under the same protocol, as the assay permits multiple viral replications. Moreover, monitoring of RL activity allows false-positive results (inhibition by test drugs due to cytotoxicity) to be detected and eliminated. Finally, the use of RL activity greatly improved the efficacy of screening.
The MaRBLE cell lines stably expressed the transfected genes, as confirmed by the stable expression of CD4, CXCR4, and CCR5 on the surfaces of cells maintained in culture for up to 6 months with continuous passage. We also confirmed that the two reporter genes were stably expressed and that IC50s were identical for both newly plated and 6-month-old cultures (data not shown).
In conclusion, we successfully established two unique cell lines, X4-MaRBLE and R5-MaRBLE, which are useful for assaying viral drug resistance and for screening new antiretroviral compounds. Although the cost of phenotypic assays using our cell lines may be less than that of commercial systems, the assays require a biosafety level 3 laboratory, general culture equipment, and a luminometer for readout. Since these are all expensive items, the assay price should be reduced and the assay protocol should be simplified for wider usage of the assay.
This study was supported by a grant from the Human Sciences Foundation and the Program for Promotion of Fundamental Studies in Health Sciences of the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation (NIBIO).
Published ahead of print on 20 December 2006. ![]()
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