Failure of SIVmac to be neutralized in macrophage cultures is unique to SIVmac and not observed with neutralization of SHIV or HIV-1.

Abstract

Except during acutely lethal infection, macaques infected with SIVmac251 produce antibodies that neutralize the virus in CEMx174 cells, macaque PBMC and macrophage cultures. In a previous report, we had shown that whereas neutralization of the SIVmac251 was complete in lymphocyte cultures, "protected" macrophages had actually become latently infected, and remained viral DNA-positive, but the infection was nonproductive as long as antibodies were maintained in the medium. Removal of the antibodies as long as 1 week later, resulted in resurgence of virus replication. In the present study, we compared neutralization of SIVmac239 with that of neutralization of SHIV and HIV-1, and sought to determine whether the failure to prevent infection in macrophages was also typical of neutralization of SHIV and HIV-1 in macaque and human macrophage cultures, respectively. The results showed that similar to SIVmac251, neutralizing antibodies did not block SIVmac239 infection in macaque macrophages, although they blocked infection of the virus in T cells. The data from neutralization of SHIV using anti-SHIV antibodies and for neutralization of HIV-1 (89.6 and Bal) using anti-HIV IgG in both T cells and macrophages, however, can be summarized with a single statement: neutralization of SHIV and HIV-1 was complete in all of the cultures, with no evidence of establishment of latent infection in or resurgence of virus replication after antibodies were removed from macrophage cultures. The non-neutralizability of SIVmac (251 and 239) in macrophages is therefore unique to the SIVmac and not relevant to neutralization of HIV-1.