A mutant Tat protein provides strong protection from HIV-1 infection in human CD4+ T cells.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Apolloni A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3696950 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundNullbasic is a mutant HIV-1 Tat protein that inhibits HIV-1 replication via three independent mechanisms that disrupts 1) reverse transcription of the viral RNA genome into a DNA copy, 2) HIV-1 Rev protein function required for viral mRNA transport from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and 3) HIV-1 mRNA transcription by RNA Polymerase II. The Nullbasic protein is derived from the subtype B strain HIV-1BH10 and has only been tested against other HIV-1 subtype B strains. However, subtype B strains only account for ~10% of HIV-1 infections globally and HIV-1 Tat sequences vary between subtypes especially for subtype C, which is responsible for ~50% HIV-1 infection worldwide. These differences could influence the ability of Tat to interact with RNA and cellular proteins and thus could affect the antiviral activity of Nullbasic. Therefore, Nullbasic was tested against representative HIV-1 strains from subtypes C, D and A/D recombinant to determine if it can inhibit their replication.MethodsNullbasic was delivered to human cells using a self-inactivating (SIN) γ-retroviral system. We evaluated Nullbasic-mCherry (NB-mCh) fusion protein activity against the HIV-1 strains in TZM-bl cell lines for inhibition of transactivation and virus replication. We also examined antiviral activity of Nullbasic-ZsGreen1 (NB-ZSG1) fusion protein against the same strains in primary CD4+ T cells. The Nullbasic expression was monitored by western blot and flow cytometry. The effects of Nullbasic on primary CD4+ T cells cytotoxicity, proliferation and apoptosis were also examined.ResultsThe results show that Nullbasic inhibits Tat-mediated transactivation and virus replication of all the HIV-1 strains tested in TZM-bl cells. Importantly, Nullbasic inhibits replication of the HIV-1 strains in primary CD4+ T cells without affecting cell proliferation, cytotoxicity or level of apoptotic cells.ConclusionA SIN-based γ-retroviral vector used to express Nullbasic fusion proteins improved protein expression particularly in primary CD4+ T cells. Nullbasic has antiviral activity against all strains from the subtypes tested although small differences in viral inhibition were observed. Further improvement of in γ-retroviral vector stable expression of Nullbasic expression may have utility in a future gene therapy approach applicable to genetically diverse HIV-1 strains.
| S-EPMC5348743 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Our previous work demonstrated that HIV-1 infection progressively reduces TCR/CD3 expression due to a defect in CD3g gene transcripts. We further found that knocking down expression of the viral tat and/or nef genes was correlated with CD3g transcript and TCR/CD3 surface receptor levels on HIV-1 infected cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the direct effect of HIV-1 Tat expression on the TCR/CD3 machinery. Progressive downregulation from TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3− was observed on Tat expressing cells in a manner that emulated HIV-1 infection, with a lack of CD3g transcripts again responsible for the defect. When Tat cell cultures containing a mixture of TCR/CD3 surface densities were separated into TCR/CD3hi and TCR/CD3lo/− populations, they quickly reverted to a mixed CD3 phenotype. Thus, the progression TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3− is an active, reversible process with receptor levels fluctuating in response to intracellular dynamics. Examination of tat mutants found that the regions involved in Tat-mediated transactivation and TAR binding are required for TCR/CD3 downregulation while the lysine at position 28 and Tat exon 2 are dispensable. Global gene expression, assessed in association with TCR/CD3 downregulation in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells, detected broad suppression of TCR/CD3 signaling, co-stimulation and negative regulatory genes along with target transcription factors, ligands and receptors. A significant subset of the genes altered in HIV-1 infected cells was specifically targeted by Tat in association with TCR/CD3 loss. Our finding that Tat negatively regulates many facets of the TCR/CD3 machinery has important implications for disease pathogenesis. We used microarrays to investigate changes in CD4+ T cell gene expression induced by expression of the HIV-1 Tat protein.
2015-12-31 | GSE33705 | GEO
Project description:BackgroundHIV-1 Tat is essential for HIV replication and is also a well-known neurotoxic factor causing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). Currently, combined antiretroviral therapy targeting HIV reverse transcriptase or protease cannot prevent the production of early viral proteins, especially Tat, once HIV infection has been established. HIV-infected macrophages and glial cells in the brain still release Tat into the extracellular space where it can exert direct and indirect neurotoxicity. Therefore, stable production of anti-Tat antibodies in the brain would neutralize HIV-1 Tat and thus provide an effective approach to protect neurons.MethodsWe constructed a humanized anti-Tat Hutat2:Fc fusion protein with the goal of antagonizing HIV-1 Tat and delivered the gene into cell lines and primary human monocyte-derived macrophages (hMDM) by an HIV-based lentiviral vector. The function of the anti-Tat Hutat2:Fc fusion protein and the potential side effects of lentiviral vector-mediated gene transfer were evaluated in vitro.ResultsOur study demonstrated that HIV-1-based lentiviral vector-mediated gene transduction resulted in a high-level, stable expression of anti-HIV-1 Tat Hutat2:Fc in human neuronal and monocytic cell lines, as well as in primary hMDM. Hutat2:Fc was detectable in both cells and supernatants and continued to accumulate to high levels within the supernatant. Hutat2:Fc protected mouse cortical neurons against HIV-1 Tat86-induced neurotoxicity. In addition, both secreted Hutat2:Fc and transduced hMDM led to reducing HIV-1BaL viral replication in human macrophages. Moreover, lentiviral vector-based gene introduction did not result in any significant changes in cytomorphology and cell viability. Although the expression of IL8, STAT1, and IDO1 genes was up-regulated in transduced hMDM, such alternation in gene expression did not affect the neuroprotective effect of Hutat2:Fc.ConclusionsOur study demonstrated that lentivirus-mediated gene transfer could efficiently deliver the Hutat2:Fc gene into primary hMDM and does not lead to any significant changes in hMDM immune-activation. The neuroprotective and HIV-1 suppressive effects produced by Hutat2:Fc were comparable to that of a full-length anti-Tat antibody. This study provides the foundation and insights for future research on the potential use of Hutat2:Fc as a novel gene therapy approach for HAND through utilizing monocytes/macrophages, which naturally cross the blood-brain barrier, for gene delivery.
| S-EPMC4256057 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Replication competent HIV-1 persists in a subpopulation of CD4+ T lymphocytes despite prolonged antiretroviral treatment. This residual reservoir of infected cells harbors transcriptionally silent provirus capable of reigniting productive infection upon discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy. Certain classes of drugs can activate latent virus but not at levels that lead to reductions in HIV-1 reservoir size in vivo. Here, we show the utility of CD4+ receptor targeting exosomes as an HIV-1 latency reversal agent (LRA). We engineered human cellular exosomes to express HIV-1 Tat, a protein that is a potent transactivator of viral transcription. Preparations of exosomal Tat-activated HIV-1 in primary, resting CD4+ T lymphocytes isolated from antiretroviral-treated individuals with prolonged periods of viral suppression and led to the production of replication competent HIV-1. Furthermore, exosomal Tat increased the potency of selected LRA by over 30-fold in terms of HIV-1 mRNA expression, thereby establishing it as a potentially new class of biologic product with possible combinatorial utility in targeting latent HIV-1.
| S-EPMC5928859 | biostudies-other
Project description:Our previous work demonstrated that HIV-1 infection progressively reduces TCR/CD3 expression due to a defect in CD3g gene transcripts. We further found that knocking down expression of the viral tat and/or nef genes was correlated with CD3g transcript and TCR/CD3 surface receptor levels on HIV-1 infected cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the direct effect of HIV-1 Tat expression on the TCR/CD3 machinery. Progressive downregulation from TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â was observed on Tat expressing cells in a manner that emulated HIV-1 infection, with a lack of CD3g transcripts again responsible for the defect. When Tat cell cultures containing a mixture of TCR/CD3 surface densities were separated into TCR/CD3hi and TCR/CD3lo/â populations, they quickly reverted to a mixed CD3 phenotype. Thus, the progression TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â is an active, reversible process with receptor levels fluctuating in response to intracellular dynamics. Examination of tat mutants found that the regions involved in Tat-mediated transactivation and TAR binding are required for TCR/CD3 downregulation while the lysine at position 28 and Tat exon 2 are dispensable. Global gene expression, assessed in association with TCR/CD3 downregulation in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells, detected broad suppression of TCR/CD3 signaling, co-stimulation and negative regulatory genes along with target transcription factors, ligands and receptors. A significant subset of the genes altered in HIV-1 infected cells was specifically targeted by Tat in association with TCR/CD3 loss. Our finding that Tat negatively regulates many facets of the TCR/CD3 machinery has important implications for disease pathogenesis. We used microarrays to investigate changes in CD4+ T cell gene expression induced by expression of the HIV-1 Tat protein. Examine changes in gene expression in HIV-1 Tat transduced cells compared with cells transduced with an antisense Tat sequence used as a control.
2015-12-31 | E-GEOD-33705 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:UnlabelledNullbasic is a derivative of the HIV-1 transactivator of transcription (Tat) protein that strongly inhibits HIV-1 replication in lymphocytes. Here we show that lentiviral vectors that constitutively express a Nullbasic-ZsGreen1 (NB-ZSG1) fusion protein by the eEF1α promoter led to robust long-term inhibition of HIV-1 replication in Jurkat cells. Although Jurkat-NB-ZSG1 cells were infected by HIV-1, no virus production could be detected and addition of phorbol ester 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and JQ1 had no effect, while suberanilohydroxamic acid (SAHA) modestly stimulated virus production but at levels 300-fold lower than those seen in HIV-1-infected Jurkat-ZSG1 cells. Virus replication was not recovered by coculture of HIV-1-infected Jurkat-NB-ZSG1 cells with uninfected Jurkat cells. Latently infected Jurkat latent 6.3 and ACH2 cells treated with latency-reversing agents produced measurable viral capsid (CA), but little or none was made when they expressed NB-ZSG1. When Jurkat cells chronically infected with HIV-1 were transduced with lentiviral virus-like particles conveying NB-ZSG1, a >3-log reduction in CA production was observed. Addition of PMA increased virus CA production but at levels 500-fold lower than those seen in nontransduced Jurkat cells. Transcriptome sequencing analysis confirmed that HIV-1 mRNA was strongly inhibited by NB-ZSG1 but indicated that full-length viral mRNA was made. Analysis of HIV-1-infected Jurkat cells expressing NB-ZSG1 by chromatin immunoprecipitation assays indicated that recruitment of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation were inhibited. The reduction of HIV-1 promoter-associated RNAPII and epigenetic changes in viral nucleosomes indicate that Nullbasic can inhibit HIV-1 replication by enforcing viral silencing in cells.ImportanceHIV-1 infection is effectively controlled by antiviral therapy that inhibits virus replication and reduces measurable viral loads in patients below detectable levels. However, therapy interruption leads to viral rebound due to latently infected cells that serve as a source of continued viral infection. Interest in strategies leading to a functional cure of HIV infection by permanent viral suppression, which may be achievable, is growing. Here we show that a mutant form of the HIV-1 Tat protein, referred to as Nullbasic, can inhibit HIV-1 transcription in infected Jurkat T cell to undetectable levels. Analysis shows that Nullbasic alters the epigenetic state of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat promoter, inhibiting its association with RNA polymerase II. This study indicates that key cellular proteins and pathways targeted here can silence HIV-1 transcription. Further elucidation could lead to functional-cure strategies by suppression of HIV transcription, which may be achievable by a pharmacological method.
| S-EPMC4958243 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Our previous work demonstrated that HIV-1 infection progressively reduces TCR/CD3 expression due to a defect in CD3g gene transcripts. We further found that knocking down expression of the viral tat and/or nef genes was correlated with CD3g transcript and TCR/CD3 surface receptor levels on HIV-1 infected cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the direct effect of HIV-1 Tat expression on the TCR/CD3 machinery. Progressive downregulation from TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3− was observed on Tat expressing cells in a manner that emulated HIV-1 infection, with a lack of CD3g transcripts again responsible for the defect. When Tat cell cultures containing a mixture of TCR/CD3 surface densities were separated into TCR/CD3hi and TCR/CD3lo/− populations, they quickly reverted to a mixed CD3 phenotype. Thus, the progression TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3− is an active, reversible process with receptor levels fluctuating in response to intracellular dynamics. Examination of tat mutants found that the regions involved in Tat-mediated transactivation and TAR binding are required for TCR/CD3 downregulation while the lysine at position 28 and Tat exon 2 are dispensable. Global gene expression, assessed in association with TCR/CD3 downregulation in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells, detected broad suppression of TCR/CD3 signaling, co-stimulation and negative regulatory genes along with target transcription factors, ligands and receptors. A significant subset of the genes altered in HIV-1 infected cells was specifically targeted by Tat in association with TCR/CD3 loss. Our finding that Tat negatively regulates many facets of the TCR/CD3 machinery has important implications for disease pathogenesis. We used microarrays to investigate changes in CD4+ T cell gene expression induced by HIV-1 infection for comparison with the Tat expressing cells.
2015-12-31 | GSE33706 | GEO
Project description:Our previous work demonstrated that HIV-1 infection progressively reduces TCR/CD3 expression due to a defect in CD3g gene transcripts. We further found that knocking down expression of the viral tat and/or nef genes was correlated with CD3g transcript and TCR/CD3 surface receptor levels on HIV-1 infected cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the direct effect of HIV-1 Tat expression on the TCR/CD3 machinery. Progressive downregulation from TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â was observed on Tat expressing cells in a manner that emulated HIV-1 infection, with a lack of CD3g transcripts again responsible for the defect. When Tat cell cultures containing a mixture of TCR/CD3 surface densities were separated into TCR/CD3hi and TCR/CD3lo/â populations, they quickly reverted to a mixed CD3 phenotype. Thus, the progression TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â is an active, reversible process with receptor levels fluctuating in response to intracellular dynamics. Examination of tat mutants found that the regions involved in Tat-mediated transactivation and TAR binding are required for TCR/CD3 downregulation while the lysine at position 28 and Tat exon 2 are dispensable. Global gene expression, assessed in association with TCR/CD3 downregulation in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells, detected broad suppression of TCR/CD3 signaling, co-stimulation and negative regulatory genes along with target transcription factors, ligands and receptors. A significant subset of the genes altered in HIV-1 infected cells was specifically targeted by Tat in association with TCR/CD3 loss. Our finding that Tat negatively regulates many facets of the TCR/CD3 machinery has important implications for disease pathogenesis. We used microarrays to investigate changes in CD4+ T cell gene expression induced by HIV-1 infection for comparison with the Tat expressing cells. Examine changes in gene expression in TCR/CD3 negative HIV-1 infected cells compared to TCR/CD3 positive uninfected controls.
2015-12-31 | E-GEOD-33706 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The high mutation rate of HIV is linked to the generation of viruses expressing proteins with altered function whose impact on disease progression is unknown. We investigated how HIV-1 viruses lacking Env, Vpr, and Nef affect CD4(+) T cell survival. We found that in the absence of these proteins, HIV-1-infected CD4(+) primary T cells progress to the G(0) phase of the cell cycle and to cell death, indicating that viruses expressing inactive forms of these proteins can contribute to the CD4(+) T cell decline as the wild-type virus, suggesting that other HIV proteins are responsible for inducing apoptosis. Apoptosis in these cells is triggered by the alteration of the Egr1-PTEN-Akt (early growth response-1/phosphate and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10/Akt) and p53 pathways, which converge on the FOXO3a (Forkhead box transcription factor O class 3a) transcriptional activator. The FOXO3a target genes Fas ligand and TRAIL, involved in the extrinsic apoptotic pathway, and PUMA, Noxa, and Bim, which are part of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway, were also up-regulated, indicating that HIV infection leads to apoptosis by the engagement of multiple apoptotic pathways. RNAi-mediated knockdown of Egr1 and FOXO3a resulted in reduced apoptosis in HIV-infected HeLa and CD4(+) T cells, providing further evidence for their critical role in HIV-induced apoptosis and G(0) arrest. We tested the possibility that Tat is responsible for the T cell apoptosis observed with these mutant viruses. The induction of Egr1 and FOXO3a and its target genes was observed in Jurkat cells transduced by Tat alone. Tat-dependent activation of the Egr1-PTEN-FOXO3a pathway provides a mechanism for HIV-1-associated CD4(+) T cell death.
| S-EPMC2665797 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Staphylococcus aureus are gram-positive bacteria that cause clinically significant infections in humans. Severe S. aureus infections are particularly problematic in hospitalized patients and reoccur despite therapeutic measures. The absence of natural protective immune responses and the lack of high-throughput approaches to identify S. aureus antigens have imposed constraints in the development of effective vaccines. Here, we showed that vaccination with the genetically attenuated S. aureus mutant, inactivated using UV irradiation rather than heat, significantly increased survival and diminished bacterial burden and kidney abscesses when mice were challenged with virulent methicillin-sensitive or methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Protection conferred by immunization could be transferred to the naive host and was not observed in B-cell-deficient mice. Using a novel S. aureus whole-proteome microarray, we show that immunoglobulin G antibody responses to 83 proteins were observed in the immunized mice. These results suggest that protection against S. aureus infections requires antibody responses to the wide repertoire of antigens/virulence factors. Vaccination using UV-irradiated genetically attenuated S. aureus induces humoral immunity and provides a vaccine strategy for pathogens that fail to induce protective immunity. We also describe a novel, high-throughput technology to easily identify S. aureus antigens for vaccine development.
| S-EPMC3488195 | biostudies-literature