Association of neutralization sensitivity of HIV-1 primary isolates with biological properties of isolates from HIV-1 infected Chinese individuals.

Objective: Although HIV-1 infection is prevalent in many regions in China, it remains largely unknown on the biological characteristics of dominant circulating isolates. This study was designed to isolate the circulating viral strains from different prevalent regions and to characterize their biological properties and neutralization sensitivity.

Methods: Primary viruses were isolated from fresh PBMCs using the traditional co-culture method and their capacity of inducing syncytium was tested in MT-2 cells.