Spleen necrosis virus-based vector delivery of anti-HIV-1 genes potently protects human hematopoietic cells from HIV-1 infection.

In this study, we report on the efficacy of using a spleen necrosis virus (SNV)-based vector delivery system to block human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) replication in human hematopoietic cells. These efforts were directed towards the development of human immune system cell resistance to HIV-1 infection, based on the strategy of "intracellular immunization" via generation of a series of anti-HIV-1 therapeutic constructs carrying scFvs, single-chain variable fragments, against HIV-1 integrase and reverse transcriptase in combination with the trans-dominant mutant of HIV-1 Rev, RevM10. The efficiency of the anti-HIV-1 constructs were tested in viral challenge assays with different doses of HIV-1 NL4-3, Bal, 89.6 and R7-GFP strains. These experiments demonstrated the reduction of HIV-1 replication by these retroviral vector constructs in a range of 4- to 10-fold in CD4+ T-lymphocytes, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and primary human macrophages. We observed selective efficiency of SNV-based therapeutics in H9, C8166 and Jurkat T-lymphocytic cell lines, demonstrating the most efficient inhibition of HIV-1 replication in Jurkat T-cells. Thus, these data are the first demonstration of the ability of SNV-based retroviral vectors with select transgenes, which may have certain molecular advantages over other retroviral vector systems, to combat HIV-1 replication in human hematopoietic cells and support the potential for using SNV-expressed constructs in anti-HIV-1 molecular therapeutics.