Plaque-reduction assays for human and simian immunodeficiency virus neutralization

Research on HIV vaccines, as well as studies on HIV pathogenesis in human and SIV in the macaque model, require the availability of simple and standardized assays for quantification of neutralizing antibodies to primary virus isolates. We have recently developed and standardized assays using human cell lines engineered to express CD4 and co-receptors for HIV and SIV entry. One cell line originated from a glioma (U87) and the other from an osteosarcoma (HOS). Both cell lines and their derivatives form monolayer cultures, a prerequisite for counting plaques. HIV-infected U87.CD4-CCR5 or -CXCR4 cells form syncytia, that is, plaques that can be stained with hematoxylin and enumerated by light microscopy. In addition to CD4 and co-receptors (most often used CCR5 and CXCR6 by SIV), GHOST(3) cells have been engineered to express the green fluorescent protein following virus infection. Infected cells show green fluorescence and can be enumerated by fluorescence microscopy. Neutralization is determined by the ability of a serum to reduce the number of plaque-forming units (PFU) relative to controls exposed to medium or negative serum. Both assays are run in microtiter format and neutralization is evaluated after 3 d. Intra-assay variation has been used for estimation of the cutoff for neutralization. Testing 15 serum-virus combinations in the U87.CD4 assay and four serum-virus combinations in the GHOST(3) assay revealed that standard deviation of differences ranged from 9.1% to 9.9% in the two assays. This allowed the use of a cutoff >3 SD; that is, 30% neutralization. Virus titration experiments showed that neutralization results were dependent on virus dose and therefore the neutralization assays should be performed with a virus dose of 10-100 PFU/well. The assays have high specificity and reproducibility, and are simple and sensitive high-throughput assays.