T-cell line adaptation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 strain SF162: effects on envelope, vpu and macrophage-tropism.

Changes in co-receptor-use by human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains are relatively rare in vivo. Here we describe two variants derived from the CCR5-using strain SF162, selected for replication in the C8166 T-cell line. Amino acid substitutions in the V3 loop conferred CXCR4-use; however, the loss of macrophage-tropism by one variant was due to a single mutation in the start codon of vpu. We discuss how V3 loop and vpu mutations acquired by replication in T-cell lines in vitro correlate with similar changes reported for primary isolates and HIV-1 sequences in vivo.