Journal of human virology最新文献

Objective: To determine CD4+ T-cell count and circulating and tissue levels of HIV before and after surgery in a patient with recent-onset ulcerative colitis.

Study design/methods: CD4 lymphocytes and circulating and tissue HIV RNA levels were measured in an HIV-infected patient with ulcerative colitis before and after proctocolectomy.

Results: Approximately 3 weeks prior to surgery for ulcerative colitis that was unresponsive to corticosteroids, the patient's CD4 count was 930 cells/mm3 and fell to 313 cells/mm3 within 10 days; the viral burden was approximately 80,000 RNA copies/mL. Tissue macrophages and lymphocytes in biopsy and resection specimens were shown to express high levels of HIV RNA by in situ hybridization. Five days postoperatively, the patient became asymptomatic and was discharged on tapering prednisone without antiretroviral agents. After surgery, the patient's CD4 count progressively rose, while viral RNA levels precipitously dropped. At 3, 6, and 15 weeks postoperatively, CD4 and viral RNA counts were 622 cells/mm3 and 31,300 RNA copies/mL, 843 cells/mm3 and 11,400 RNA copies/mL, and 747 cells/mm3 and 1500 RNA copies/mL, respectively.

Conclusions: Circulating levels of HIV and CD4+ cells, as well as tissue expression of HIV, apparently can be influenced by localized inflammatory processes such as those occurring in inflammatory bowel disease.

Objective: To find cellular proteins that associate with EBNA-3 (also called EBNA-3A), one of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded growth transformation-associated nuclear proteins.

Methods: Screening human cDNA libraries in the yeast two-hybrid system and performing an analysis of interaction in vitro as well as in cell lysates.

Results: EBNA-3 binds to the epsilon subunit of the chaperonin containing T-complex protein 1 (epsilon-TCP-1) in the yeast two-hybrid system. The cDNA clone isolated from a human lymphocyte library was found to encode the middle and C-terminal part of epsilon-TCP-1. The interaction was confirmed by showing that a GST fusion protein specifically precipitated EBNA-3 from CV1 cells infected with recombinant vaccinia virus expressing EBNA-3. The interacting region was mapped to the putative apical domain of epsilon-TCP-1.

Conclusions: This study shows that large, virus-encoded transforming proteins such as EBNA-3 may receive help for their initial folding by chaperonin complexes. The recognition of the chaperonin complex likely occurs through specific interaction with one of the subunits. We suggest that nascent EBNA-3 may recognize the TCP-1 complex by interacting with the apical region of the epsilon subunit.

Objective: Attempts were made to establish stable in vitro cell lines latently infected with human herpesvirus type 6 (HHV-6).

Study design/methods: We previously studied a patient with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia infected with HHV-6. The peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from this patient were immortalized by infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and herpesvirus saimiri (HVS).

Results: Infection of the PBMCs with EBV and HVS gave rise to B- and T-lymphoblastoid cell lines, respectively. Both cell lines were positive for HHV-6 DNA, as confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot hybridization. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) demonstrated integration of HHV-6 in these cell lines. Only one integrated site of viral DNA was detected in metaphase chromosome spreads, and it was preferentially located at the long arm of chromosome 1 (1q44). HHV-6 appeared latent in the infected cells, since neither the HHV-6 immediate-early gene transcript nor virion-associated protein was detected.

Conclusions: The HHV-6-positive lymphoblastoid cell lines would be useful for study of the mechanism of HHV-6 integration.

Objectives: This study was performed to assess the frequency of drug resistance mutations in treatment-naive HIV-1-infected patients.

Study design/methods: Frozen plasma samples from 135 treatment-naive HIV-infected adults were available from the first time the patients were seen for their infection in our center between 1992 and 1997. A rapid genotypic assay based on reverse DNA hybridization (LiPA HIV-1 RT, Murex, London, U.K.) was used to study substitutions at reverse transcriptase (RT) codons 41, 69, 70, 74, 184, and 215. Additionally, a selective polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the multiple dideoxynucleoside resistance (MddNR) mutation Q151M was performed.

Results: 16 patients (12%) harbored virus with one or more drug resistance mutations. The prevalence of patients with drug-resistant virus was 0% in 1992, 17% in 1993, 0% in 1994 (only 6 samples tested), 18% in 1995, 14% in 1996, and 9% in 1997. Mutation K70R (resistance to zidovudine) was found in 8 patients, M41L (resistance to zidovudine) in 5 patients, M184V/I (resistance to ddI/ddC/3TC) in 2 patients, and T215Y/F (resistance to zidovudine) in 4 patients. All samples were wild type at codons 69 (ddC), 74 (ddI), and 151 (MddNR).

Conclusions: Virus strains containing drug resistance mutations are now found in about 1 of 10 treatment-naive HIV-1-seropositive patients in Luxembourg. We believe that testing for drug-resistant virus before starting treatment should be recommended and will help to improve the selection of the most effective antiretroviral treatment. We also suggest the need for an international surveillance program on HIV drug resistance in treatment-naive patients.

We studied the gene transfer efficiency of lipofection reagents in comparison to DEAE-Dextran. DOTAP, Dosper, and Lipofectin have lower transfection efficiency; Lipofectamine has a 2.5-fold better efficiency compared with DEAE-Dextran. We report a novel and highly efficient DNA transfer system based on the DNA-binding proteins histone 3 and histone 4. We have transferred the HIV-1 tat gene and measured the transactivation of HIV-1 LTR by the transactivator protein, expressed in Jurkat cells. The HIV-1 LTR was linked to the CAT gene as a reporter. Compared to DEAE-Dextran-mediated transfection, histone-mediated transfection resulted in a sevenfold higher expression of the CAT gene. The maximum transfection efficiency mediated by histones is dependent on the relative concentration (DNA:histone ratio) and the incubation time. In a gel-retardation assay, an optimal complex formation was observed under the same conditions that allowed the highest transfection efficiency. This ability of histones to increase the delivery and transgenic expression of foreign DNA in eukaryotic cells is not simply due to the positive ionic character of the histone proteins. Polylysine, histone H1, and histone H2A were unable to mediate gene transfection in our system. Monoclonal antibodies that recognize antigenic determinant present on all five histone proteins (anti-histone, pan) were able to neutralize the transfection-enhancing potential of histone 3 and histone 4. However, anti-histone IgG enhanced the retardation of mobility of histone-DNA complexes. The results of this study allow us to conclude that histones H3 and H4 can catalyze gene transfer and gene expression in eukaryotic cells without any requirement for additional constituents. For this reason, we have termed the new gene-delivery system as histonefection.

Objective: To determine the frequency of the mutant CCR5 delta 32 allele in high-risk HIV-seronegative Africans as compared with the general African population, and to assess its in vitro protective efficacy against HIV-1 infection.

Study design: In the homozygous form, the CCR5 delta 32 allele confers resistance to macrophage-tropic (M-tropic) strains of HIV-1. Assuming that genetic characteristics favoring HIV resistance would prevail in a high-risk HIV-seronegative population, we examined the CCR5 genotypes of female commercial sex workers (CSWs) from Dakar, Senegal, who have remained uninfected for an elongated period.

Methods: The CCR5 genetic profile of study participants was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of genomic DNA followed by sequencing. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were infected with different strains of HIV-1 and monitored by p24 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results: We confirmed the presence of two CCR5wt/delta 32 genotypes among 139 individuals (1.44%). PBMCs from these 2 heterozygous individuals were also found to be less susceptible to in vitro infection by an M-tropic HIV-1 primary isolate.

Conclusions: Evidence was found of an increased prevalence of the CCR5wt/delta 32 genotype in a high-risk HIV-seronegative cohort in West Africa. Furthermore, reduced susceptibility to HIV-1 infection among heterozygous individuals supports a role for 32-bp CCR5 deletion in HIV-1 resistance.

Objective: It has been well documented by several laboratories that adeno-associated virus (AAV) is able to inhibit HIV-1 replication and gene expression. This effect has been mapped to the AAV-encoded Rep78 protein. However, the mechanism by which Rep78 is able to inhibit HIV-1 is unclear. As Rep78 is a DNA binding transcription factor, the objective of this study was to investigate where Rep78 might bind within the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences and to judge the importance of this protein-DNA interaction.

Study design/methods: Rep78's binding to HIV-LTR DNA was analyzed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). The importance of this protein-DNA interaction was analyzed using a Rep78 mutant defective for binding HIV-LTR DNA in an assay for monitoring gene expression (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase [CAT] assay).

Results: The preferred site for Rep78 binding was found to be adjacent to the HIV-LTR TATA box, within nt -54 to -34 relative to the site of transcription initiation. Furthermore, a Rep78 mutant with substitutions at amino acid residues 64 and 65 which was found defective for binding HIV-LTR DNA, was also found to be defective for inhibition of tat transactivated HIV-LTR gene expression.

Conclusion: These data strongly suggest that Rep78's DNA binding ability is important for its mechanism of inhibition. Furthermore, the TATA box region of the HIV-LTR, to which Rep78 preferentially binds, is a likely target through which the inhibition takes place.

Objectives: To elucidate why the virulence of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections differ in West African populations.

Study design/method: Peripheral blood plasma virion RNA and cellular proviral DNA levels were measured in a cross-section of 59 HIV-1 and 49 HIV-2 singly infected individuals representing all stages of infection in The Gambia, West Africa. Novel reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays specific and sensitive for virus quantification of non-clade B HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections were used.

Results: HIV-1 and HIV-2 proviral and plasma RNA levels were inversely correlated with CD4+ count for both infections with cellular proviral load similar at each stage of infection. Critically, up to three-fourths of HIV-2-infected individuals with high CD4 percentages (> 28%) had undetectable (< 500 copies/mL) levels of peripheral blood HIV-2 RNA in contrast to HIV-1-infected individuals who had readily detectable plasma virus at all stages of infection (P < .0001). Plasma RNA levels were similar in the intermediate and end stages of infection, indicating similar replication potential for both viruses. In the cross-section of HIV-1- and HIV-2-infected patients studied, the data indicate a wider dynamic range of HIV-2 RNA in vivo compared with HIV-1.

Discussion: Low levels of HIV-2 replication and virion expression characterize individuals with high CD4+ lymphocyte counts, suggesting that a very different dynamic equilibrium exists between virus and host for HIV-2 compared with HIV-1. By analogy with HIV-1, our data implicate a considerably lower turnover of HIV-2 virion RNA in vivo with a markedly reduced production of infectious genomes in individuals during the subclinical phase of infection.

Conclusion: The lower levels of virion expression of HIV-2 infections in vivo are compatible with observed differences in the natural history of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections, relating to overall differences in the pathogenesis and disease progression of the two infections.