Protein crystals in adenovirus type 5-infected cells: requirements for intranuclear crystallogenesis, structural and functional analysis

Intranuclear crystalline inclusions have been observed in the nucleus of epithelial cells infected with Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) at late steps of the virus life cycle. Using immuno-electron microscopy and confocal microscopy of cells infected with various Ad5 recombinants modified in their penton base or fiber domains, we found that these inclusions represented crystals of penton capsomers, the heteromeric capsid protein formed of penton base and fiber subunits. The occurrence of protein crystals within the nucleus of infected cells required the integrity of the fiber knob and part of the shaft domain. In the knob domain, the region overlapping residues 489–492 in the FG loop was found to be essential for crystal formation. In the shaft, a large deletion of repeats 4 to 16 had no detrimental effect on crystal inclusions, whereas deletion of repeats 8 to 21 abolished crystal formation without altering the level of fiber protein expression. This suggested a crucial role of the five penultimate repeats in the crystallisation process. Chimeric pentons made of Ad5 penton base and fiber domains from different serotypes were analyzed with respect to crystal formation. No crystal was found when fiber consisted of shaft (S) from Ad5 and knob (K) from Ad3 (heterotypic S5-K3 fiber), but occurred with homotypic S3K3 fiber. However, less regular crystals were observed with homotypic S35-K35 fiber. TB5, a monoclonal antibody directed against the Ad5 fiber knob was found by immunofluorescence microscopy to react with high efficiency with the intranuclear protein crystals in situ. Data obtained with Ad fiber mutants indicated that the absence of crystalline inclusions correlated with a lower infectivity and/or lower yields of virus progeny, suggesting that the protein crystals might be involved in virion assembly. Thus, we propose that TB5 staining of Ad-infected 293 cells can be used as a prognostic assay for the viability and productivity of fiber-modified Ad5 vectors

Trends in Occupational Exposure to Styrene in the European Glass Fibre-Reinforced Plastics Industry

Aim: This study presents temporal trends of styrene exposure for workers in the European glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP) industry during the period 1966–2002

Producer-initiated field research leads to a new diagnostic test for footrot

The Cicerone Project was formed in 1998 to address problems faced by wool producers. In the New England area, the issue of suspected false positive diagnoses of virulent footrot, which can be a significant cause of economic loss to individual producers, was investigated. In New South Wales, footrot diagnosis is primarily a field diagnosis supported by the gelatin gel laboratory test. The principal causative agent of footrot is 'Dichelobacter nodosus'. If the gelatin gel test finds strains of 'D. nodosus' to be thermostable (gel stable), a finding of virulent footrot is likely and quarantine of the affected property follows. However, livestock producers and inspectors reported that there were a considerable number of cases where laboratory tests found strains to be stable but these strains did not cause virulent footrot in the field. Preliminary results using DNA markers associated with virulent footrot showed that one of these markers, 'intA', was absent in gel stable, field benign strains but present in all strains tested which caused field virulent footrot.Atrial conducted at Uralla, New South Wales, demonstrated conclusively that there were strains of 'D. nodosus' which were stable in the gelatin gel test but did not cause virulent footrot in the field. All of these strains were negative in the 'intA' DNA test. These results were confirmed in a second field trial at Molong, New South Wales. These trials were instrumental in establishing that the gelatin gel test at times gave results inconsistent with the clinical expression of footrot, potentially leading to a false positive diagnosis of virulent footrot. Subsequent research led to confirmation of the 'intA' test, which is now available as an additional tool for footrot diagnosis

Taz1p and Teb1p, two telobox proteins in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, recognize different telomere-related DNA sequences.

Band shift assays were used to study proteins from the fission yeast that bind double-stranded telomeric repeat sequences. We also examine general DNA binding properties of the telobox domain, which characterizes telomere-binding proteins from a range of species. We demonstrate that Taz1p has a high affinity for the fission yeast telomeric repeat, consistent with genetic results implicating this protein in telomere maintenance. A second Schizosaccharomyces pombe telobox protein, Teb1p, is shown to bind with high affinity to the vertebrate repeat and with low affinity to the fission yeast telomeric DNA. When tested on G-rich single-stranded telomeric DNA, all these proteins bind with very low affinity, much like the human telomere-binding protein TRF1. Recombinant proteins containing just the telobox domains reproduce the specificity of binding demonstrated for the corresponding full-length proteins, indicating that the telobox domain is indeed responsible for specific DNA recognition. The presence of possible Teb1p-binding sites upstream of many genes suggests a role for this protein as a general transcription factor. Finally, band shift experiments with whole cell extracts from wild-type and taz1 (-)strains suggest that in addition to Taz1p, S.pombe has another major telomere-binding activity

Mechanism of restriction of normal and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator-deficient human tracheal gland cells to adenovirus infection and ad-mediated gene transfer.

CF-KM4 (cystic fibrosis transmebrane conductance regulator-deficient) and MM-39 (healthy) cells, two serous cell lines from submucosal tracheal glands, were found to be poorly susceptible to adenovirus (Ad)5 infection and Ad5-mediated gene transduction. The major limiting steps apparently resided in the primary events of Ad5 interaction, i.e., cell attachment and entry. Both CF-KM4 and MM-39 cells failed to express the Coxsackie-Ad receptor (CAR), and experimental data suggested that alpha[2-->6]-linked sialic acid residues of sialoglycoproteins (SAGP) in CF-KM4 cells, and heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans (HS-GAG) in MM-39, were used as receptors by Ad5 virions. Ad5 attached to SAGP and HS-GAG receptors via its fiber knob domain, but entered the cells via a penton base- and Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-integrin-independent pathway. The block to Ad5-mediated gene transfer in MM-39 and KM4 cells could be overcome by conferring to the vector a novel cell-binding specificity. Thus, Ad5 vectors carrying a stretch of 7-lysine residues genetically inserted at the C-terminus of the fiber knob were found to transduce MM-39 cells with a 10- to 20-fold higher efficiency than the original vectors, but the transduction of CF-KM4 was not significantly improved. Retargeting Ad5 to integrin receptors via RGD peptide ligands, inserted at the extremity of the fiber shaft, resulted in a transducing efficiency of 20- and 50-fold higher in MM-39 and KM4 cells, respectively, compared with Ad5 vectors carrying fibers terminated by their natural knob domain

Gene Transduction and Cell Entry Pathway of Fiber-Modified Adenovirus Type 5 Vectors Carrying Novel Endocytic Peptide Ligands Selected on Human Tracheal Glandular Cells

International audienc

Adenovirus hexon protein is a potent adjuvant for activation of a cellular immune response.

The capacity of recombinant adenoviruses (rAd) to induce immunization against their transgene products has been well documented. In the present study, we evaluated the vaccinal adjuvant role of rAd independently of its vector function. BALB/c mice received one subcutaneous injection of a mixture of six lipopeptides (LP6) used as a model immunogen, along with AdE1 degrees (10(9) particles), a first-generation rAd empty vector. Although coinjected with a suboptimal dose of lipopeptides, AdE1 degrees significantly improved the effectiveness of the vaccination, even in the absence of booster immunization. In contrast to mice that received LP6 alone or LP6 plus a mock adjuvant, mice injected with AdE1 degrees plus LP6 developed both a polyspecific T-helper type 1 response and an effector CD8 T-cell response specific to at least two class I-restricted epitopes. The helper response was still observed when immunization was performed using LP6 plus a mixture of soluble capsid components released from detergent-disrupted virions. When mice were immunized with LP6 and each individual capsid component, i.e., hexon, penton base, or fiber, the results obtained suggested that hexon protein was responsible for the adjuvant effect exerted by disrupted Ad particles on the helper response to the immunogen. Our results thus have some important implications not only in vaccinology but also for gene therapy using rAd vectors

Adenovirus hexon protein is a potent adjuvant for activation of a cellular immune response.

The capacity of recombinant adenoviruses (rAd) to induce immunization against their transgene products has been well documented. In the present study, we evaluated the vaccinal adjuvant role of rAd independently of its vector function. BALB/c mice received one subcutaneous injection of a mixture of six lipopeptides (LP6) used as a model immunogen, along with AdE1 degrees (10(9) particles), a first-generation rAd empty vector. Although coinjected with a suboptimal dose of lipopeptides, AdE1 degrees significantly improved the effectiveness of the vaccination, even in the absence of booster immunization. In contrast to mice that received LP6 alone or LP6 plus a mock adjuvant, mice injected with AdE1 degrees plus LP6 developed both a polyspecific T-helper type 1 response and an effector CD8 T-cell response specific to at least two class I-restricted epitopes. The helper response was still observed when immunization was performed using LP6 plus a mixture of soluble capsid components released from detergent-disrupted virions. When mice were immunized with LP6 and each individual capsid component, i.e., hexon, penton base, or fiber, the results obtained suggested that hexon protein was responsible for the adjuvant effect exerted by disrupted Ad particles on the helper response to the immunogen. Our results thus have some important implications not only in vaccinology but also for gene therapy using rAd vectors

Producer-initiated field research leads to a new diagnostic test for footrot

The Cicerone Project was formed in 1998 to address problems faced by wool producers. In the New England area, the issue of suspected false positive diagnoses of virulent footrot, which can be a significant cause of economic loss to individual producers, was investigated. In New South Wales, footrot diagnosis is primarily a field diagnosis supported by the gelatin gel laboratory test. The principal causative agent of footrot is 'Dichelobacter nodosus'. If the gelatin gel test finds strains of 'D. nodosus' to be thermostable (gel stable), a finding of virulent footrot is likely and quarantine of the affected property follows. However, livestock producers and inspectors reported that there were a considerable number of cases where laboratory tests found strains to be stable but these strains did not cause virulent footrot in the field. Preliminary results using DNA markers associated with virulent footrot showed that one of these markers, 'intA', was absent in gel stable, field benign strains but present in all strains tested which caused field virulent footrot.Atrial conducted at Uralla, New South Wales, demonstrated conclusively that there were strains of 'D. nodosus' which were stable in the gelatin gel test but did not cause virulent footrot in the field. All of these strains were negative in the 'intA' DNA test. These results were confirmed in a second field trial at Molong, New South Wales. These trials were instrumental in establishing that the gelatin gel test at times gave results inconsistent with the clinical expression of footrot, potentially leading to a false positive diagnosis of virulent footrot. Subsequent research led to confirmation of the 'intA' test, which is now available as an additional tool for footrot diagnosis