@article{mbs:/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001141, author = "Das, Supratik and Bansal, Manish and Bhattacharya, Jayanta", title = "Characterization of the membrane-bound form of the chimeric, B/C recombinant HIV-1 Env, LT5.J4b12C", journal= "Journal of General Virology", year = "2018", volume = "99", number = "10", pages = "1438-1443", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001141", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001141", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2099", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "envelope", keywords = "HIV-1", keywords = "broadly neutralizing antibodies, non-neutralizing antibodies", keywords = "efficient cleavage", keywords = "vaccine", abstract = "Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) diversity is a significant challenge in developing a vaccine against the virus. B/C recombinants have been found in India and other places but are the predominant clade prevalent in China. HIV-1 envelopes (Envs) are the target of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) which develop spontaneously in some HIV-1 infected patients. It has been previously reported with efficiently cleaved clade A, B and C Envs that preferential binding of Envs to bNAbs as opposed to non-NAbs, a desirable property for immunogens, is correlated with efficient cleavage of the Env precursor polypeptide into constituent subunits. These Envs are suitable for designing immunogens as soluble proteins, virus-like particles or for delivery by viral vectors/plasmid DNA. However, a B/C recombinant Env with similar properties has not been reported. Here we show that the chimeric, recombinant B/C clade Env LT5.J4b12C is efficiently cleaved on the plasma membrane and selectively binds to bNAbs.", }