Role of naturally occurring basic amino acid substitutions in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 subtype E envelope V3 loop on viral coreceptor usage and cell tropism

To assess the role of naturally occurring basic amino acid substitutions in the V3 loop of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HN-I) subtype E on viral coreceptor usage and cell tropism, we have constructed a panel of chimeric viruses with mutant V3 loops of HIV-1 subtype E in the genetic background of HIV-1(LAI). The arginine substitutions naturally occurring at positions 8, 11, and 18 of the V3 loop in an HIV-1 subtype E X4 strain were systematically introduced into that of an R5 strain to generate a series of V3 loop mutant chimera. These chimeric viruses were employed in virus infectivity assays using HOS-CD4 cells expressing either CCR5 or CXCR4, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, T-cell lines, or macrophages. The arginine substitution at position 11 of the V3 loop uniformly caused the loss of infectivity in HOS-CD4-CCR5 cells, indicating that position 11 is critical for utilization of CCR5. CXCR4 usage was conferred by a minimum of two arginine substitutions, regardless of combination, whereas arginine substitutions at position 8 and 11 were required for T-cell line tropism. Nonetheless, macrophage tropism was not conferred by the V3 loop of subtype E R5 strain per se. We found that the specific combinations of amino acid changes in HIV-1 subtype E env V3 loop are critical for determining viral coreceptor usage and cell tropism, However, the ability to infect HOS-CD4 cells through either CXCR5 or CCR5 is not necessarily correlated with T-cell or macrophage tropism, suggesting that cellular tropism is not dictated solely by viral coreceptor utilization.