Scholars@Duke
Feng Gao

Feng Gao

Professor Emeritus in Medicine
Medicine, Infectious Diseases
feng.gao@duke.edu
Box 102359 Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27710
244 Sands Bldg, Box 102359, Durham, NC 27710

Featured Works

Impact of clade, geography, and age of the epidemic on HIV-1 neutralization by antibodies.

Journal article J Virol · November 2014 Featured Publication UNLABELLED: Neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are a high priority for vaccines that aim to prevent the acquisition of HIV-1 infection. Vaccine effectiveness will depend on the extent to which induced antibodies neutralize the global diversity of circulating H ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cooperation of B cell lineages in induction of HIV-1-broadly neutralizing antibodies.

Journal article Cell · July 31, 2014 Featured Publication Development of strategies for induction of HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) by vaccines is a priority. Determining the steps of bnAb induction in HIV-1-infected individuals who make bnAbs is a key strategy for immunogen design. Here, we study ... Full text Link to item Cite

Affinity maturation in an HIV broadly neutralizing B-cell lineage through reorientation of variable domains.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · July 15, 2014 Featured Publication Rapidly evolving pathogens, such as human immunodeficiency and influenza viruses, escape immune defenses provided by most vaccine-induced antibodies. Proposed strategies to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies require a deeper understanding of antibody a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of a contemporary globally diverse HIV viral panel by the EQAPOL program.

Journal article J Immunol Methods · July 2014 Featured Publication The significant diversity among HIV-1 variants poses serious challenges for vaccine development and for developing sensitive assays for screening, surveillance, diagnosis, and clinical management. Recognizing a need to develop a panel of HIV representing t ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Progress in HIV-1 vaccine development.

Journal article J Allergy Clin Immunol · July 2014 Featured Publication The past 2 years have seen a number of basic and translational science advances in the quest for development of an effective HIV-1 vaccine. These advances include discovery of new envelope targets of potentially protective antibodies, demonstration that CD ... Full text Link to item Cite

An autoreactive antibody from an SLE/HIV-1 individual broadly neutralizes HIV-1.

Journal article J Clin Invest · April 2014 Featured Publication Broadly HIV-1-neutralizing antibodies (BnAbs) display one or more unusual traits, including a long heavy chain complementarity-determining region 3 (HCDR3), polyreactivity, and high levels of somatic mutations. These shared characteristics suggest that BnA ... Full text Link to item Cite

The variable loop 3 in the envelope glycoprotein is critical for the atypical coreceptor usage of an HIV-1 strain.

Journal article PLoS One · 2014 Featured Publication The majority of HIV-1 strains enter CD4+ T cells using the CCR5 and/or CXCR4 co-receptor. However, we recently identified a transmitted/founder (T/F) virus (ZP6248) that efficiently used an alternative coreceptor GPR15, rather than commonly used CXCR4 and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reversion and T cell escape mutations compensate the fitness loss of a CD8+ T cell escape mutant in their cognate transmitted/founder virus.

Journal article PLoS One · 2014 Featured Publication Immune escape mutations that revert back to the consensus sequence frequently occur in newly HIV-1-infected individuals and have been thought to render the viruses more fit. However, their impact on viral fitness and their interaction with other immune esc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Relative resistance of HIV-1 founder viruses to control by interferon-alpha.

Journal article Retrovirology · December 3, 2013 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Following mucosal human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission, type 1 interferons (IFNs) are rapidly induced at sites of initial virus replication in the mucosa and draining lymph nodes. However, the role played by IFN-stimulated a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Simultaneous detection of major drug resistance mutations in the protease and reverse transcriptase genes for HIV-1 subtype C by use of a multiplex allele-specific assay.

Journal article J Clin Microbiol · November 2013 Featured Publication High-throughput, sensitive, and cost-effective HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) detection assays are needed for large-scale monitoring of the emergence and transmission of HIVDR in resource-limited settings. Using suspension array technology, we have developed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Clonal amplification and maternal-infant transmission of nevirapine-resistant HIV-1 variants in breast milk following single-dose nevirapine prophylaxis.

Journal article Retrovirology · August 14, 2013 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Intrapartum administration of single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP) reduces perinatal HIV-1 transmission in resource-limiting settings by half. Yet this strategy has limited effect on subsequent breast milk transmission, making the case for new treatm ... Full text Link to item Cite

Establishment of cell lines with increased susceptibility to EV71/CA16 by stable overexpression of SCARB2.

Journal article Virol J · August 6, 2013 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Human enterovirus type 71 (EV71) and Coxsackievirus A group type 16 (CA16) belong to human Enterovirus species A of the family Picornaviridae. These viruses are recognized as the major pathogens responsible for epidemics of hand-foot-mouth dise ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparison of viral Env proteins from acute and chronic infections with subtype C human immunodeficiency virus type 1 identifies differences in glycosylation and CCR5 utilization and suggests a new strategy for immunogen design.

Journal article J Virol · July 2013 Featured Publication Understanding human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission is central to developing effective prevention strategies, including a vaccine. We compared phenotypic and genetic variation in HIV-1 env genes from subjects in acute/early infection and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Co-evolution of a broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibody and founder virus.

Journal article Nature · April 25, 2013 Featured Publication Current human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) vaccines elicit strain-specific neutralizing antibodies. However, cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies arise in approximately 20% of HIV-1-infected individuals, and details of their generation could provide ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Phenotypic properties of transmitted founder HIV-1.

Journal article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · April 23, 2013 Featured Publication Defining the virus-host interactions responsible for HIV-1 transmission, including the phenotypic requirements of viruses capable of establishing de novo infections, could be important for AIDS vaccine development. Previous analyses have failed to identify ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Antigenicity and immunogenicity of transmitted/founder, consensus, and chronic envelope glycoproteins of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

Journal article J Virol · April 2013 Featured Publication Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine development requires selection of appropriate envelope (Env) immunogens. Twenty HIV-1 Env glycoproteins were examined for their ability to bind human anti-HIV-1 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and then used ... Full text Link to item Cite

Postnatally-transmitted HIV-1 Envelope variants have similar neutralization-sensitivity and function to that of nontransmitted breast milk variants.

Journal article Retrovirology · January 10, 2013 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding is a leading cause of infant HIV-1 infection in the developing world, yet only a minority of infants exposed to HIV-1 via breastfeeding become infected. As a genetic bottleneck severely restricts the number of postnatally-transmit ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Vertical T cell immunodominance and epitope entropy determine HIV-1 escape.

Journal article J Clin Invest · January 2013 Featured Publication HIV-1 accumulates mutations in and around reactive epitopes to escape recognition and killing by CD8+ T cells. Measurements of HIV-1 time to escape should therefore provide information on which parameters are most important for T cell-mediated in vivo cont ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of preexisting drug-resistance mutations and treatment failure in hepatitis B patients.

Journal article PLoS One · 2013 Featured Publication The role of preexisting minority drug-resistance mutations in treatment failure has not been fully understood in chronic hepatitis B patients. To understand mechanisms of drug resistance, we analyzed drug-resistance mutations in 46 treatment-failure patien ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of immune escape mutations on HIV-1 fitness in the context of the cognate transmitted/founder genome.

Journal article Retrovirology · October 30, 2012 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: A modest change in HIV-1 fitness can have a significant impact on viral quasispecies evolution and viral pathogenesis, transmission and disease progression. To determine the impact of immune escape mutations selected by cytotoxic T lymphocytes ... Full text Link to item Cite

A laboratory-adapted HCV JFH-1 strain is sensitive to neutralization and can gradually escape under the selection pressure of neutralizing human plasma.

Journal article Virus Res · October 2012 Featured Publication Viral replication and neutralization of hepatitis C viruses (HCV) have been studied using the infectious molecular clone JFH-1. By passaging JFH-1 in hepatoma cells in the absence or presence of HCV neutralizing antibodies (nAbs), we investigated the molec ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transmitted/founder and chronic subtype C HIV-1 use CD4 and CCR5 receptors with equal efficiency and are not inhibited by blocking the integrin α4β7.

Journal article PLoS Pathog · 2012 Featured Publication Sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) most often results from productive infection by a single transmitted/founder (T/F) virus, indicating a stringent mucosal bottleneck. Understanding the viral traits that overcome this bottle ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early low-titer neutralizing antibodies impede HIV-1 replication and select for virus escape.

Journal article PLoS Pathog · 2012 Featured Publication Single genome sequencing of early HIV-1 genomes provides a sensitive, dynamic assessment of virus evolution and insight into the earliest anti-viral immune responses in vivo. By using this approach, together with deep sequencing, site-directed mutagenesis, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Polyclonal B cell responses to conserved neutralization epitopes in a subset of HIV-1-infected individuals.

Journal article J Virol · November 2011 Featured Publication A small proportion of HIV-infected individuals generate a neutralizing antibody (NAb) response of exceptional magnitude and breadth. A detailed analysis of the critical epitopes targeted by broadly neutralizing antibodies should help to define optimal targ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dynamic antibody specificities and virion concentrations in circulating immune complexes in acute to chronic HIV-1 infection.

Journal article J Virol · November 2011 Featured Publication Understanding the interactions between human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) virions and antibodies (Ab) produced during acute HIV-1 infection (AHI) is critical for defining antibody antiviral capabilities. Antibodies that bind virions may prevent tr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Initial antibodies binding to HIV-1 gp41 in acutely infected subjects are polyreactive and highly mutated.

Journal article J Exp Med · October 24, 2011 Featured Publication The initial antibody response to HIV-1 is targeted to envelope (Env) gp41, and is nonneutralizing and ineffective in controlling viremia. To understand the origins and characteristics of gp41-binding antibodies produced shortly after HIV-1 transmission, we ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Primary infection by a human immunodeficiency virus with atypical coreceptor tropism.

Journal article J Virol · October 2011 Featured Publication The great majority of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains enter CD4+ target cells by interacting with one of two coreceptors, CCR5 or CXCR4. Here we describe a transmitted/founder (T/F) virus (ZP6248) that was profoundly impaired in its abi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Recurrent signature patterns in HIV-1 B clade envelope glycoproteins associated with either early or chronic infections.

Journal article PLoS Pathog · September 2011 Featured Publication Here we have identified HIV-1 B clade Envelope (Env) amino acid signatures from early in infection that may be favored at transmission, as well as patterns of recurrent mutation in chronic infection that may reflect common pathways of immune evasion. To ac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Drug resistance and HCV coinfection in former blood donors infected with HIV type 1 in China.

Journal article AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses · August 2011 Featured Publication Unhygienic blood collection caused an outbreak of HIV-1 and HCV infections among blood donors in rural areas in Henan province, China. Partial HIV-1 pol and HCV NS5b gene sequences were obtained from 97 persons infected with HIV-1 to determine the efficacy ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evolution of drug-resistant viral populations during interruption of antiretroviral therapy.

Journal article J Virol · July 2011 Featured Publication Analysis of a large number of HIV-1 genomes at multiple time points after antiretroviral treatment (ART) interruption allows determination of the evolution of drug-resistant viruses and viral fitness in vivo in the absence of drug selection pressure. Using ... Full text Link to item Cite

Analysis of low-frequency mutations associated with drug resistance to raltegravir before antiretroviral treatment.

Journal article Antimicrob Agents Chemother · March 2011 Featured Publication Raltegravir is highly efficacious in the treatment of HIV-1 infection. The prevalence and impact on virologic outcome of low-frequency resistant mutations among HIV-1-infected patients not previously treated with raltegravir have not been fully established ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identification of amino acid substitutions associated with neutralization phenotype in the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 subtype C gp120.

Journal article Virology · January 20, 2011 Featured Publication Neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) are thought to play an important role in prevention and control of HIV-1 infection and should be targeted by an AIDS vaccine. It is critical to understand how HIV-1 induces Nabs by analyzing viral sequences in both tested vir ... Full text Link to item Cite