A new contained human immunodeficiency virus type 1 host cell system for evaluation of antiviral activities of interferons and other agents in vitro

HIV-host infection systems in vitro are important in the pre-clinical assessment of anti-retroviral drug activity. The present report describes the development of a new HIV-host model comprised of an epithelial cell line of HeLa lineage (HeLa-1), transfected with expression vectors bearing tat and rev (TART) genes of HIV-1 as well as the CD4 receptor gene, and HIV-1 ΔTat/Rev, a biologically contained strain of HIV-1 deleted in tat and rev. Measurement of infectivity, by syncytium formation and reverse transcriptase assay, revealed that HeLa-1 is infected with HIV-1 ΔTat/Rev. This virus failed to productively infect the TART-deficient CD4-positive HeLa cells, confirming its contained, non-infectious nature. The HeLa-1/HIV-1 ΔTat/Rev system was used to measure the anti-retroviral activity of a human leukocyte-derived interferon (IFN-αn3) preparation, several nucleoside analogs, and protease inhibitors. The HeLa-1/HIV-1 ΔTat/Rev model provides a biologically contained system for the study of the HIV pathogenesis and the relative and combined therapeutic effects of anti-retroviral agents in vitro.