The Human Cytomegalovirus UL36 Gene Controls Caspase-Dependent and -Independent Cell Death Programs Activated by Infection of Monocytes Differentiating to Macrophages▿

The cellular protease caspase-8 activates extrinsic apoptosis and also functions to promote monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation. Differentiation-induced alterations to antiviral caspase-8-dependent cell death pathways are unclear. Here, we show THP-1 monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation alters the specific cell death pathways activated in response to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. Employing viruses with mutations in UL36, the gene that encodes the viral inhibitor of caspase-8 activation (vICA), our data indicate that both caspase-dependent and -independent death pathways are activated in response to infection. Activation of caspase-dependent and -independent cell death responses restricted growth of vICA-deficient viruses, and vICA/pUL36 inhibited either response. Thus, these studies also reveal that the UL36 gene controls a caspase-independent cell death pathway. The impact of caspases on control of antiviral responses differed at early and late stages of macrophage differentiation. Early in differentiation, vICA-deficient virus-induced cell death was dependent on caspases and inhibited by the pan-caspase inhibitor z-VAD(OMe)-fluoromethyl ketone. In contrast, virus-induced death at late times of differentiation was caspase independent. Additional unlabeled and fluorescent inhibitors indicated that caspase-8 promoted death from within infected cells at early but not late stages of differentiation. These data highlight the multifunctional role of vICA/pUL36 as HCMV encounters various antiviral responses during macrophage differentiation

Evaluation of a High-Throughput Repetitive-Sequence-Based PCR System for DNA Fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium Complex Strains

Repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) is useful for generating DNA fingerprints of diverse bacterial and fungal species. Rep-PCR amplicon fingerprints represent genomic segments lying between repetitive sequences. A commercial system that electrophoretically separates rep-PCR amplicons on microfluidic chips, and provides computer-generated readouts of results has been adapted for use with Mycobacterium species. The ability of this system to type M. tuberculosis and M. avium complex (MAC) isolates was evaluated. M. tuberculosis strains (n = 56) were typed by spoligotyping with rep-PCR as a high-resolution adjunct. Results were compared with those generated by a standard approach of spoligotyping with IS6110-targeted restriction fragment length polymorphism (IS6110-RFLP) as the high-resolution adjunct. The sample included 11 epidemiologically and genotypically linked outbreak isolates and a population-based sample of 45 isolates from recent immigrants to Seattle, Wash., from the African Horn countries of Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Twenty isolates exhibited unique spoligotypes and were not analyzed further. Of the 36 outbreak and African Horn isolates with nonunique spoligotypes, 23 fell into four clusters identified by IS6110-RFLP and rep-PCR, with 97% concordance observed between the two methods. Both approaches revealed extensive strain heterogeneity within the African Horn sample, consistent with a predominant pattern of reactivation of latent infections in this immigrant population. Rep-PCR exhibited 89% concordance with IS1245-RFLP typing of 28 M. avium subspecies avium strains. For M. tuberculosis as well as M. avium subspecies avium, the discriminative power of rep-PCR equaled or exceeded that of RFLP. Rep-PCR also generated DNA fingerprints from M. intracellulare (n = 8) and MAC(x) (n = 2) strains. It shows promise as a fast, unified method for high-throughput genotypic fingerprinting of multiple Mycobacterium species

Combined Effect of CCR5-Δ32 Heterozygosity and the CCR5 Promoter Polymorphism −2459 A/G on CCR5 Expression and Resistance to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Transmission

Exposed seronegative individuals (ES) with persistent high-risk sexual behavior may be less susceptible to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection because they carry the chemokine receptor (CR) gene alleles CCR5 open reading frame (ORF) Δ32, CCR5 promoter −2459G, or CCR2 ORF 64I (CCR2-64I), all of which have been found to diminish HIV-1 infectivity and/or disease progression. To investigate this, we determined the haplotypes for these three genetic loci in 93 ES and 247 low-risk control individuals. To test if protective haplotypes exert their effect by modulating CR expression, we measured the protein expression of CCR5 and CXCR4 on circulating CD4(+) T cells and CD14(+) monocytes in 71 ES and 92 controls. To avoid investigator bias, the analysis was performed without knowledge of each subject's risk and genotype. The CCR5 −2459G allele was significantly enriched in ES Caucasian men, who constituted the majority (84%) of the ES cohort, compared to the control Caucasian men (P = 0.02). This increase was mostly attributable to a higher frequency of the −2459 A/G versus the −2459 A/A genotype in individuals heterozygous for the Δ32 allele (P = 0.012). No protective influence of the CCR2-64I allele was observed. The haplotypes CCR5 ORF Δ32/CCR5 −2459A (in complete linkage disequilibrium) and CCR5 ORF wt/CCR5 −2459G had a cumulative negative effect on the expression of CCR5, since we measured significantly reduced CCR5 densities on both T-helper cells and monocytes only when both haplotypes were present. Densities of CCR5 on lymphocytes and monocytes were correlated (r = 0.59; P < 0.0001), indicating concordance of CCR5 expression patterns across different cell types. We conclude that the CCR5 ORF Δ32/wt-CCR5 −2459 A/G genotype combination offers an advantage in resisting sexual HIV-1 transmission and that this effect is mediated by a relative paucity of CCR5 on potential target cells of HIV-1

Genetic Association of the Antiviral Restriction Factor TRIM5α with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection

The innate antiviral factor TRIM5α restricts the replication of some retroviruses through its interaction with the viral capsid protein, leading to abortive infection. While overexpression of human TRIM5α results in modest restriction of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), this inhibition is insufficient to block productive infection of human cells. We hypothesized that polymorphisms within TRIM5 may result in increased restriction of HIV-1 infection. We sequenced the TRIM5 gene (excluding exon 5) and the 4.8-kb 5′ putative regulatory region in genomic DNA from 110 HIV-1-infected subjects and 96 exposed seronegative persons, along with targeted gene sequencing in a further 30 HIV-1-infected individuals. Forty-eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including 20 with allele frequencies of >1.0%, were identified. Among these were two synonymous and eight nonsynonymous coding polymorphisms. We observed no association between TRIM5 polymorphism in HIV-1-infected subjects and their set-point viral load after acute infection, although one TRIM5 haplotype was weakly associated with more rapid CD4(+) T-cell loss. Importantly, a TRIM5 haplotype containing the nonsynonymous SNP R136Q showed increased frequency among HIV-1-infected subjects relative to exposed seronegative persons, with an odds ratio of 5.49 (95% confidence interval = 1.83 to 16.45; P = 0.002). Nonetheless, we observed no effect of individual TRIM5α nonsynonymous mutations on the in vitro HIV-1 susceptibility of CD4(+) T cells. Therefore, any effect of TRIM5α polymorphism on HIV-1 infection in primary lymphocytes may depend on combinations of SNPs or on DNA sequences in linkage disequilibrium with the TRIM5α coding sequence

Impaired Viral Entry Cannot Explain Reduced CD4+ T Cell Susceptibility to HIV Type 1 in Certain Highly Exposed Individuals

Rare individuals report repeated unprotected HIV-1 sexual exposures, yet remain seronegative for years. We investigated the possibility that reduced in vitro CD4+ T cell susceptibility to HIV-1 infection protects such highly exposed seronegative (ES) individuals. Susceptibility to three R5-tropic HIV-1 isolates, regardless of inoculating dose, was remarkably similar between 81 ES and 33 low-risk controls. In 94% (99/105) of donors, we observed a 1.36 log-unit range in HIV-1JR-CSF production, with similar results for HIV-11192. The median frequency of intracellular Gag+ T cells after single-round infection was similar in ES (5.2%) and controls (7.2%), p = 0.456. However, in repeated testing, CD4+ T cells from two controls (6.1%) and four ES (4.9%) exhibited a 10- to 2500-fold reduction in HIV-1 production and required 5- to 12-fold greater HIV-11192 and HIV-1JR-CSF inocula to establish infection (TCID50). Reduced viral entry cannot explain the low producer phenotype; no differences in CCR5 receptor density or β-chemokine production were observed. In conclusion, we have identified a remarkably narrow range of HIV-1 susceptibility in seronegative donors regardless of risk activity, which can be applied as a benchmark to assess vaccine-induced antiviral effector activities. However, CD4+ T cells from a subset of individuals demonstrated reduced HIV-1 susceptibility unexplained by impaired entry, lending support to the possibility that cellular restriction of HIV-1 may account for continued seronegativity in some of those having repeated sexual exposure. Identifying the host-virus interactions responsible for diminished in vitro susceptibility may contribute to the development of novel therapeutic strategies