Journal: PLOS Pathogens
Article Title: Mechanistic insights and in vivo HIV suppression by the BRD4-targeting small molecule ZL0580
doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013449
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Experimental design and timeline for the in vivo study using HIV-infected CD34 + Hu-mice. At week 0, 12 Hu-mice were intravenously inoculated with a single dose of HIV-1 JR-CSF (10 ng HIV p24 antigen per animal). Plasma samples were collected at weeks 2 and 3 after HIV inoculation for confirmation of HIV infection by RT-qPCR and HIV p24 ELISA. At week 3, 11 out of the 12 Hu-mice were confirmed with systemic HIV infection (the one without infection was removed from the study). The 11 Hu-mice with successful HIV infection were randomized into four treatment groups at week 3: Empty Vehicle (EV) (n = 2), ART (n = 3), ZL0580 (n = 3), and ART + ZL0580 (n = 3). Treatment regimens were initiated at week 3 and administered daily by intraperitoneal until week 7. Plasma viral loads were closely monitored during the treatments at weeks 5, 6, 7. From week 7, all animals were subjected to treatment interruption (TI) and plasma viral loads were closely monitored once every 2 weeks until week 15. (B) Kinetics of plasma viral loads (HIV RNA copies/ml) post HIV inoculation for each mouse in EV (black circles), ART (orange triangles), ZL0580 (blue squares), and ART + ZL0580 (red diamonds) treatment groups. The shaded areas denote the phase of establishing systemic HIV infection (orange), treatment phase (blue), and treatment interruption (TI) monitoring phase (green). RT-qPCR was performed in duplicate and the mean of viral RNA copies for each sample at different time points was shown. (C) Summary data for kinetics of plasma viral loads over weeks post HIV inoculation for all animals in the four treatment groups: EV (black circles), ART (orange triangles), ZL0580 (blue squares), and ART + ZL0580 (red diamonds). Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical comparison of viral loads among the four groups at each time point was performed using one-way ANNOVA. * at week 7 and *** at week 13 denote significant difference of the individual treatment group (ART, ZL0580, or ART + ZL0580) as compared to the EV group. The dashed line indicates the limit of detection (LOD). (D) Comparison of area under the curve (AUC) among the four groups after treatment interruption (TI) between weeks 7 and 15. Statistical comparison was performed using one-way ANNOVA. (E) Percentage change in body weight over days after treatment for all treatment groups. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. In this figure: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
Article Snippet: To assess in vivo HIV-suppressive activity of ZL0580, we utilized a humanized mouse model (Hu-mice) generated by engrafting human CD34 + hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into the immunodeficient NOD SCID gamma (NSG) mice (the Jackson Laboratory).
Techniques: In Vivo, Infection, Clinical Proteomics, Quantitative RT-PCR, Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay, Comparison