J Virol, February 1998, p. 1627-1631, Vol. 72, No. 2
0022-538X/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Herpesvirus Saimiri-Transformed Human CD4+ T-Cell
Lines: an Efficient Target Cell System for the Analysis of Human
Immunodeficiency Virus-Specific Cytotoxic CD8+
T-Lymphocyte Activity
Monika
Bauer,1
Maria
Lucchiari-Hartz,2,
Helmut
Fickenscher,3
Klaus
Eichmann,2
Jane
McKeating,4 and
Andreas
Meyerhans1,*
Abteilung Virologie, Institut für
Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Universität Freiburg,
79104 Freiburg,1
Max-Planck-Institut
für Immunbiologie, 79108 Freiburg,2 and
Institut für Klinische und Molekulare Virologie,
Universität Erlangen Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen,3 Germany, and
School of
Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading,
United Kingdom4
Received 28 July 1997/Accepted 3 November 1997
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ABSTRACT |
Herpesvirus saimiri growth-transformed human CD4+ T
lymphocytes were examined for their suitability as a target cell system for investigating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-specific HLA class
I-restricted cytotoxic T-cell activity. Besides CD4, they express the
chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4, the common coreceptors of HIV. They
are infectible by a range of HIV strains, including primary isolates,
becoming efficient targets for CD8-positive HIV-specific cytotoxic T
lymphocytes.
 |
TEXT |
HLA class I-restricted
CD8+ T lymphocytes (CTL) are believed to play an important
role in immune defense against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
infection (3, 25, 35). For example, this antiviral response
is considered a major factor in reducing the virus load during primary
infection and in controlling virus production thereafter (5, 6,
13, 15, 16, 22, 29, 30, 37). Several assay systems have been used
to evaluate the HIV-specific CTL response (19, 28, 36, 38).
Most commonly used as target cells are autologous Epstein-Barr virus
(EBV)-transformed B-cell lines that have been infected with recombinant
vaccinia viruses expressing various HIV antigens. While such a target
cell system allows the detection of a CTL activity restricted by the
complete set of a patient's HLA, only a single variant of a single HIV antigen can be examined. However, one of the features of persistent HIV
infection is the continuous generation of novel virus variants with
altered antigenic properties (13, 20, 21, 26, 27, 37). As
the test antigen of the recombinant vaccinia virus usually differs from
the patient's HIV strain, the CTL response can be markedly
underestimated (13). To overcome such limitations and to
measure the CTL activity against the complex HIV populations, so-called
quasispecies, present in patient isolates, an HIV-infectible target
cell system is necessary. Ideally, it should be based on CD4-positive T
lymphocytes, the main cell type infected in HIV-infected patients, as
target cells. Second, it should allow testing of the CTL activity
restricted by all the patient's HLA, e.g., by using autologous
CD4+ T lymphocytes. Third, it should express the main HIV
coreceptors, in addition to CD4, to allow for infection with a variety
of different HIV isolates (2, 7-10, 39). And fourth, it
should respond to HIV infection in a manner similar to that of primary
CD4+ T lymphocytes, at least in respect to surface marker
expression, which is important for recognition of the infected cells by
CTL (14, 32). In this respect, the use of established T-cell
lines is limited due to their infectibility by CXCR4-dependent virus isolates only, while the use of primary CD4+ T cells would
require new preparation for each assay. However, herpesvirus saimiri
(HVS) growth-transformed human CD4+ T lymphocytes should be
a promising target cell system, as they can be established from primary
CD4+ T lymphocytes even from AIDS patients (31)
and support efficient replication of HIV and simian immunodeficiency
virus (1, 23, 34).
In the present study, the suitability of HVS growth-transformed human
CD4+ T-cell lines to serve as target cells for the analysis
of HIV-specific cytotoxicity was examined. It is shown that such cell
lines express the commonly used HIV coreceptors CCR5 and CXCR4 and that
they may be infected by a variety of different HIV strains, including primary isolates. CTL-mediated lysis of HIV-infected HVS
growth-transformed CD4+ T cells is HIV specific and HLA-I
restricted. Thus, these cell lines might have broad applications for
the study of the complex interaction of HIV quasispecies and the CTL
response in an autologous system, as well as of other infections with
CD4-tropic viruses.
Efficient HIV replication in HVS growth-transformed human
CD4+ T-cell lines.
CD4+ T-cell lines were
established from peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of HLA-typed
normal blood donors by growth transformation with HVS strain C488 as
previously described (4, 11). The cell lines designated KAD
and CB15 were >98% CD3+ CD4+, as assessed by
flow cytometry. They are HLA-A2, -A3, -B7, -B27 and HLA-A1, -A24, -B8,
-B35, respectively, and were used for subsequent experiments.
To determine HIV coreceptor surface expression, KAD and CB15 cells were
stained with peptide-purified rabbit anti-CCR5 or anti-CXCR4
immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a first antibody. These were obtained after
immunization of rabbits with synthetic peptides comprising the 35 N-terminal amino acids of both chemokine receptors (ADP7039 and
ADP7040; AIDS Directed Program, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom). As the
second antibody, biotin-labelled anti-rabbit IgG (Coulter-Immunotech,
Hamburg, Germany) was used. The reaction was developed with
phycoerythrin-labelled streptavidin (PharMingen, Hamburg, Germany).
Fluorescence was measured on a FACSsort flow cytometer (Becton
Dickinson, Heidelberg, Germany). Chemokine receptor expression levels
for KAD and CB15 cells (Fig. 1A through
D) were in the range of
levels for other human HVS growth-transformed CD4+ T-cell
lines (data not shown).

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FIG. 1.
HIV coreceptor expression and HIV replication kinetics
in the HVS growth-transformed human CD4+ T-cell lines KAD
and CB15. (A through D) Cells were analyzed for surface expression of
CXCR4 (A and B) and CCR5 (C and D) by flow cytometry (solid lines).
Background fluorescence is shown by dotted lines. (E through H) Cells
were infected with HIV derived from the molecular clones HIV-1 pLai-2,
HIV-1 pLaiga (pLai-2 nef), and HIV-2 pRod (E and F) or with the
primary HIV-1 isolates Lai, R/H1865, and S/L2195 (G and H). Culture
supernatants were analyzed for RT activity at the time points
indicated. Incorporated radioactivity was measured with a
Berthold-Inotech Trace-96 (Berthold, Wildbad, Germany). The values
obtained are approximately 50-fold lower than those obtained with
conventional scintillation counters.
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To analyze the replication capacities of various HIV strains in the KAD
and CB15 cell lines, 3 × 106 cells were infected with
viruses derived from infectious molecular clones HIV-1 pLai-2, HIV-1
pLaiga (pLai-2
nef), and HIV-2 pRod or with primary isolates
(HIV-1Lai, HIV-1R/H1865, and
HIV-1S/L2195). All but HIV-1S/L2195 were of the
syncytium-inducing (SI) phenotype. Infection was carried out with a
multiplicity of infection of 0.5, or 5,000 cpm of reverse transcriptase
(RT) activity. Virus production was monitored by testing culture
supernatants for RT activity as previously described (24).
Both cell lines were permissive for all virus strains tested (Fig. 1E
through H). Replication kinetics were comparable to those in other HVS
growth-transformed CD4+ T-cell lines (23, 34),
as well as to those in primary PBMC or primary CD4+ T cells
(data not shown). Even the replication characteristics of slow/low and
rapid/high viruses HIV-1S/L2195 and
HIV-1R/H1865, respectively, were preserved. Supernatants of
infected cells were always negative for infectious herpesvirus.
Thus, HVS growth-transformed human CD4+ cell lines
express CCR5 and CXCR4, are susceptible to monocytotropic and
T-cell-tropic primary virus isolates, and seem not to alter the growth
properties of slow/low and rapid/high viruses.
We thank Otto Haller and Bernhard Fleckenstein for continuous
interest in the work and Simon Wain-Hobson for critical comments.
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and
Zentrum klinische Forschung (M.B. and A.M.), the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung (H.F.), and the Medical Research Council, ADP, Programme EVA, and the Lister Institute for Preventive Medicine (J.M.).
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