DIFFERENCE IN SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CC-CHEMOKINES AMONG HIV-1 ISOLATES

In this study, we examined the difference in susceptibility to anti-HI V activity of the CC-chemokines (RANTES, MIP-1 alpha and MIP-1 beta) a mong HIV-1 isolates and analysed its relation with phenotype (syncytiu m inducibility) and V3 domain of gp120 of the HIV-1 isolates. Of II ca ses tested in endogenous assay, at a concentration of 200 ng/ml, RANTE S, MIP-1 alpha, and MIP-1 beta showed more than 80% suppression of HIV -1 replication in 10, 8, and 7 cases, respectively. HIV-1 isolates sen sitive to more than one CC-chemokine showed non-syncytium-inducing phe notype, whereas HIV-1 isolates resistant to all of the 3 CC-chemokines showed syncytium-inducing phenotype. HIV-1 isolates resistant to all of the 3 CC-chemokines contained more positively charged amino acid re sidues in the V3 domain of the gp120. These results indicated that uti lization of the CC-chemokine receptors as co-receptors for virus entry could vary among HIV-1 isolates.