AIDS RESEARCH AND HUMAN RETROVIRUSES, 2015, 01, 1─9

A Simple Mouse Model for the Study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus

KangChang Kim, Byeong-Sun Choi

Abstract

Humanized mouse models derived from immune-deficient mice have been the primary tool for studies of human infectious viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, the current protocol for constructing humanized mice requires elaborate procedures and complicated techniques, limiting the supply of such mice for viral studies. Here, we report a convenient method for constructing a simple HIV-1 mouse model. Without prior irradiation, NOD/SCID/IL2Rc-null (NSG) mice were intraperitoneally injected with 1 · 107 adult human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hu-PBMCs). Four weeks after PBMC inoculation, human CD45+ cells, and CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ T cells were detected in peripheral blood, lymph nodes, spleen, and liver, whereas human CD19+ cells were observed in lymph nodes and spleen. To examine the usefulness of hu- PBMC-inoculated NSG (hu-PBMC-NSG) mice as an HIV-1 infection model, we intravenously injected these mice with dual-tropic HIV-1DH12 and X4-tropic HIV-1NL4-3 strains. HIV-1-infected hu-PBMC-NSG mice showed significantly lower human CD4+ T cell counts and high HIV viral loads in the peripheral blood compared with noninfected hu-PBMC-NSG mice. Following highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and neutralizing antibody treatment, HIV-1 replication was significantly suppressed in HIV-1-infected hu-PBMCNSG mice without detectable viremia or CD4+ T cell depletion. Moreover, the numbers of human T cells were maintained in hu-PBMC-NSG mice for at least 10 weeks. Taken together, our results suggest that hu-PBMCNSG mice may serve as a relevant HIV-1 infection and pathogenesis model that could facilitate in vivo studies of HIV-1 infection and candidate HIV-1 protective drugs.

• ISBN or ISSN: 0889-2229

• 본 연구는 질병관리본부 연구개발과제(과제번호 2013-E51010-00) 연구비를 지원받아 수행되었습니다.
• This research was supported by a fund(code 2013-E51010-00) by Research of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.