We developed a dual luciferase screening assay based on a R. reniformis luciferase (hRLuc) expressing HIV-1 proviral backbone and a CEM cell line expressing firefly luciferase (R5CEM-FiLuc).
We applied it for several anti-HIV drugs including entry, reverse transcriptase, integrase, and protease inhibitors at different multiplicities of infection.
We showed here that this simple assay system could be an alternative tool for monitoring antiretroviral activity and cytotoxicity simultaneously.