Quantitation of HIV RNA in blood is commonly used to monitor progression of the disease and to assess the effect of antiretroviral therapy in individuals. Although not approved in the US for diagnosis of HIV infection, the finding of a positive HIV RNA with a negative HIV enzyme immunoassay and Weste ...
Genomes of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2), like those of HIV-1 or other retroviruses, are highly variable. These genetic variants have been classified into seven genetic subtypes (1–4). The average genetic divergence between different subtypes is about 20% in the gag gene, which ...
HIV-2 infection is confined mostly to West Africa. Seven HIV-2 subtypes have so far been described; only HIV-2 subtypes A and B are prevalent, the others being considered self-limiting infections at the epidemiological level. The main limitation for the HIV-2 DNA proviral quantification is t ...
HIV-1 group O strains are highly divergent, and are found mainly in central Africa. The clinical course of group O infection is identical to that of HIV-1 group M infection, with rapid onset of immunodeficiency. The important divergence of the HIV-1 group O strains lead to high limitations of the comme ...
It is important to shorten the window period after acute HIV infection in which infected individuals are still antibody-negative, especially in blood donors. Newly developed fourth-generation assays detect antibodies to HIV-1, including subtype O, and to HIV-2 and, simultaneously, p ...
New screening enzyme immunoassays, which permit the simultaneous detection of HIV antigens reduce the diagnostic window period between the time of immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and seroconversion. The VIDAS HIV DUO Ultra is an enzyme-linked fluorescent assay (ELFA) for t ...
Highly active antiretroviral therapy can decrease plasma HIV-1 levels to below the limit of detection. However, HIV-1 persists in latently infected resting-memory CD4+ T-cells carrying an integrated copy of the viral genome. The pool of latently infected cells is extremely stable and rep ...
Following retroviral infection, specific antibodies against viral proteins may be detected in the blood, urine, milk, or saliva of an infected animal. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the most commonly used method to screen for antiviral antibodies, as the technique is sens ...
Research on HIV vaccines, as well as studies on HIV pathogenesis in human and SIV in the macaque model, require the availability of simple and standardized assays for quantification of neutralizing antibodies to primary virus isolates. We have recently developed and standardized assays ...
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) encodes proteins essential to its replication cycle. Reverse transcriptase, protease, and viral envelope gp120 are three proteins that have been targeted for antiviral drug development. Eleven inhibitors of reverse transcriptase, seven ...
HIV-1 can be isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and is easily propagated on primary cells in vitro. Here we describe the method for bulk isolation of the HIV-1 quasispecies and a limiting dilution virus isolation protocol by which single coexisting clones can be obtained. In addi ...
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) can infect circulating peripheral blood monocytes and resting CD4+ T lymphocytes despite sustained suppression of plasma viremia to undetectable levels. These persistently infected cell populations pose a barrier for virus eradica ...
Mononuclear phagocytes (MP: monocytes, dendritic cells, and tissue macrophages) are host cells for the human immunodeficiency viruses types 1 and 2. MPs are both the first lines of defense and vehicles for viral dissemination in the infected human host. Viral infection of MP can affect the dise ...
Glial inflammation, principally involving astrocytes and microglia, underlies the pathogenesis of a broad range of neurodegenerative disorders, including, most notably, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)-associated dementia. Indeed, for the latter, disease mechan ...
Semen and vaginal fluids transmit HIV infection. The virus is present as cell-free particles and as infected cells. Isolation of infectious virus from both genital tract fluids poses unique problems. Vaginal fluids are heavily contaminated with normal bacterial flora, and seminal pla ...
This chapter describes a standardized microculture technique adapted from a peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) microculture assay to isolate and quantify HIV from lymph nodes. This quantitative lymph node microculture estimates the number of infectious cells per milli ...
Human T-cell leukemia virus type 2 (HTLV-2) was first isolated from leukemia patients, but has been found to be endemic among asymptomatic groups worldwide, including certain American Indian tribes (1). The virus infection is associated with a low incidence of disease among infected subje ...
Infectious variants of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can be isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of infected individuals by propagating the virus in co-cultures with healthy donor PBMC. Standardized culture protocols have been designed specifically f ...
With the discovery that changes in the biological properties of HIV-1 correlate with the progression to disease, it became more and more important to develop assays to distinguish between the viral phenotypes. In this chapter, it is described how the biological phenotype of HIV-1 with regard to ...
An assay has been established for quantitative evaluation of lentivirus coreceptor use with the help of GHOST(3) cells. GHOST(3) cells were derived from the human osteosarcoma cell line, HOS, and have been engineered to stably express CD4 and one or another of the chemokine receptors CCR3, CCR5, C ...