%0 Journal Article %A Das, Supratik %A Bansal, Manish %A Bhattacharya, Jayanta %T Characterization of the membrane-bound form of the chimeric, B/C recombinant HIV-1 Env, LT5.J4b12C %D 2018 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 99 %N 10 %P 1438-1443 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001141 %K envelope %K HIV-1 %K broadly neutralizing antibodies, non-neutralizing antibodies %K efficient cleavage %K vaccine %I Microbiology Society, %X 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. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.001141