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Journal of Virology, September 2001, p. 8390-8399, Vol. 75, No. 18
Department of Medicine, UCLA School of
Medicine, UCLA Center for HIV and Digestive Diseases, and UCLA AIDS
Institute, Los Angeles, California 90095
Received 2 April 2001/Accepted 5 June 2001
The gastrointestinal mucosa harbors the majority of the body's
CD4+ cells and appears to be uniquely susceptible to human
immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. We undertook this
study to examine the role of differences in chemokine receptor
expression on infection of mucosal mononuclear cells (MMCs) and
peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1.
We performed in vitro infections of MMCs and PBMCs with R5- and
X4-tropic HIV-1, engineered to express murine CD24 on the infected
cell's surface, allowing for quantification of HIV-infected cells and
their phenotypic characterization. A greater percentage of MMCs than
PBMCs are infected by both R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1. Significant
differences exist in terms of chemokine receptor expression in the
blood and gastrointestinal mucosa; mucosal cells are predominantly
CCR5+ CXCR4+, while these cells make up less
than 20% of the peripheral blood cells. It is this cell population
that is most susceptible to infection with both R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1
in both compartments. Regardless of whether viral isolates were derived
from the blood or mucosa of HIV-1-infected patients, HIV-1 p24
production was greater in MMCs than in PBMCs. Further, the chemokine
receptor tropism of these patient-derived viral isolates did not differ between compartments. We conclude that, based on these findings, the
gastrointestinal mucosa represents a favored target for HIV-1, in part
due to its large population of CXCR4+ CCR5+
target cells and not to differences in the virus that it contains.
The intestinal mucosa contains most
of the body's lymphocyte population (6, 27) and therefore
likely represents the largest reservoir of human immunodeficiency virus
type 1 (HIV-1) and site of viral replication. Other factors may
contribute to enhance the mucosa's susceptibility to HIV-1. Since much
of its immense surface area contacts a bacterium- and antigen-rich
environment, the gastrointestinal mucosa is maintained in a state of
"physiologic inflammation," characterized by an intrinsically high
level of chemokines and other proinflammatory mediators. Peripheral
blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), including those infected with HIV-1, are therefore recruited to the intestinal mucosa (14).
Further, once the virus gains access to the mucosal environment, HIV-1 replication appears to be enhanced, and CD4+
cells depleted. This was shown by Veazey et al., who demonstrated that
within weeks of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection, administered intravenously or intrarectally, SIV rapidly depletes mucosal lymphocytes, and the mucosal lymphoid tissue contains more
SIV-infected lymphocytes than the peripheral blood or other secondary
lymphoid tissues (46). Selective and early depletion of
mucosal CD4+ cells also appears to occur in
HIV-1-infected humans (10, 24, 39).
Increased mucosal susceptibility to HIV-1 is thought to reflect
phenotypic differences in the cellular targets for HIV-1 between compartments. Mucosal CD4+ T lymphocytes are
predominantly of the activated, memory phenotype, compared to the
resting, naive lymphocytes that represent the vast majority of cells in
blood and other nonmucosal lymphoid tissue (38, 49).
Further, significantly more mucosal mononuclear cells (MMCs) express
CCR5 (CD195), the chemokine receptor utilized for cellular entry by
most primary HIV-1 isolates, than do peripheral blood cells (3,
23). The other major chemokine receptor utilized by HIV-1, CXCR4
(CD184), is expressed equally on MMCs and PBMCs (3, 23).
Since HIV-1 predominantly uses these chemokine receptors for entry into
a CD4+ cell and because HIV-1 replicates most
efficiently in activated cells (36, 40, 42, 50), we
hypothesize the virus should more readily infect and replicate in MMCs
than in PBMCs. In support of this assertion, we and others have shown
that more HIV p24 protein is produced from isolated MMCs than from
isolated PBMCs after in vitro infection with either CCR5 (R5)-tropic or
CXCR4 (X4)-tropic HIV-1 (3, 23).
Due to the error-prone nature of HIV-1's reverse transcriptase,
mutations develop with each replicative cycle and over time, a
heterogeneous viral population emerges. The rate of accumulation of
mutations and evolution to virus with greater fitness depends on the
viruses' replication rate (12). Since selective pressures differ between different tissue compartments and since the mucosal environment is characterized by higher concentrations of
proinflammatory cytokines that may enhance HIV-1 replication, it is
possible that the mucosa may harbor different quasispecies than blood,
playing a role in altered HIV-1 immunopathogenesis in the mucosa. Due to these evolutionary pressures, mucosal and peripheral blood viral
quasispecies conceivably may differ in their chemokine receptor tropism
and replicative capacity. Different mutations (in the reverse
transcriptase, protease, and envelope genes) have been described
throughout patient's complement of CD4+ cells,
in different compartments of the body, including the blood, brain,
spleen, lymph nodes, and gastrointestinal tract (16, 32,
47). Compartmental differences in viral phenotype have also been
described between virus isolated from the blood and lymph nodes
(25). Al-Mulla et al. showed that virus isolated from the
gastrointestinal mucosa and blood may differ phenotypically in terms of
syncytium induction (2).
We sought to determine the factors involved in enhancing the
susceptibility of the gastrointestinal mucosa to HIV-1 infection. We
performed in vitro infections utilizing replication-competent R5-tropic
HIVSX and X4-tropic
HIVNL4-3, in which the vpr gene has
been deleted and replaced with murine heat-stable antigen (mCD24). Upon
viral replication in an infected cell, mCD24 is expressed on the cell
surface and can be detected flow cytometrically. This allows for a
determination of the percentage of cells that are infected with HIV-1,
as well as for the phenotypic characterization of HIV-infected cells.
Utilizing this approach, we show that a greater percentage of MMCs,
compared to PBMCs, are infected by both M- and T-tropic viruses.
Despite significant differences in chemokine receptor expression
between cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa and blood, the cellular
targets of the virus are fairly similar. R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1
predominantly target CXCR4+
CCR5+ cells in both compartments. Thus, the
greater susceptibility of the mucosa to both viral phenotypes likely
reflects the significantly greater presence of
CCR5+ CXCR4+ cells in the
mucosa than in the blood. Primary viral isolates obtained from the
mucosal and blood compartments of the same HIV-1-infected patient
exhibited similar chemokine receptor tropism. Consistent with the
laboratory strains, infection of MMCs with these primary viral isolates
resulted in greater p24 production than did infection of PBMCs. These
data suggest that the greater ability of HIV-1 to infect and replicate
within the gastrointestinal mucosa is secondary to differences in the
cellular composition of these compartments rather than viral
differences in chemokine receptor tropism or replicative capacity.
Acquisition of MMCs and PBMCs.
Rectosigmoid biopsies were
obtained from healthy HIV-1-seronegative patients during routine
colonoscopic examination being performed for colon cancer screening or
diarrhea according to University of California at Los Angeles
Institutional Review Board (UCLA IRB)-approved methods. Samples
were acquired from HIV-1-infected patients who were recruited for a
study utilizing mucosal anti-inflammatory agents to decrease mucosal
HIV-1 replication according to UCLA IRB-approved methods. All samples
were taken from HIV-1-infected patients at their baseline examination,
prior to receiving study medication. Mucosal biopsies were routinely
taken from a site 30-cm from the anus in the rectosigmoid colon to
avoid potentially confounding inflammation resulting from traumatic or
infectious proctitis. Biopsies were collected using large cup
endoscopic biopsy forceps (Microvasive Radial Jaw #1589; outside
diameter, 3.3 mm; Boston, Mass.) into 15 ml of RPMI (Irvine
Scientific, Santa Ana, Calif.) with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) (Gemini
Bioproducts, Calabasas, Calif.) and supplemented with
antibiotic-antimycotic solution (Gibco-BRL, Rockville, Md.) containing
penicillin, streptomycin, and amphotericin B. The biopsies were
maintained at room temperature on a rotating platform until isolation
(20 to 60 min) and then moved to a 10-by-35-mm petri dish containing
phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in which the samples were teased apart
using 18-gauge (18G) needles. The resulting isolated cells and
minced tissues were resuspended in RPMI containing 10% FCS. While the
use of minced biopsies precluded determination of the precise number of
lymphocyte targets, we found that the mean yield of lymphocytes from
four biopsies was 8.2 × 105 ± 2.5 × 104 (n = 8 donors).
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.18.8390-8399.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
A Preponderance of CCR5+
CXCR4+ Mononuclear Cells Enhances Gastrointestinal Mucosal
Susceptibility to Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection
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ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Reporter viruses. HIV-1 reporter constructs were made by cloning the cell surface molecule, murine heat-stable antigen (HSA; mCD24), into the partially deleted vpr gene region of the CXCR4-tropic strain, HIV-1NL4-3, and the CCR5-tropic strain, HIV-1NFN-SX. NL-r-HSAS (HIVNL4-3 expressing mCD24) was constructed as previously described (18, 19). To construct NFN-SX-HSAS (HIVSX expressing mCD24), NL-r-HSAS was digested with PflMI and EcoRI to liberate the vpr/HSA region. The 588-bp fragment was then ligated into NFN-SX (28) that had been previously digested with the same enzymes. In both cases, virus was prepared by transient transfection in 293T cells using calcium phosphate (37).
HIV-1 infection of biopsies and PBMCs. A total of 106 PBMCs were infected with 5 × 105 tissue culture infective doses (multiplicity of infection [MOI] of 0.5), and four minced biopsies were infected with an equivalent amount of virus, in a total volume of 1 ml for 4 h at 37oC. After incubation, the infected cells and biopsies were washed with 5 ml of PBS followed by 5 ml of RPMI and incubated in RPMI supplemented with 10% FCS and 10 IU of IL-2/ml. After 5 days in culture, MMCs were isolated from the minced biopsies by further tissue disruption achieved by sample passage through syringes with a series of decreasing needle gauges (18G to 21G). Debris was removed using a 70-µm cell strainer (Becton Dickinson Labware, Franklin Lakes, N.J.). PBMCs were harvested from the plates using a cell scraper (Corning Inc, Corning, N.Y.). The single cell suspensions of isolated MMCs and PBMCs were analyzed by flow cytometry.
Flow cytometry. Monoclonal antibodies used in this study included CD3-allophycocyanin, CD4-phycoerythrin, CXCR4-allophycocyanin, and murine CD24 (all from PharMingen, San Diego, Calif.). Anti-CCR5 was provided by Walter Newman (Leukosite, Cambridge, Mass.) and was prepared as a 1:1 conjugate with phycoerythrin. Analysis was carried out on a FACSCalibur (BDIS, Mountain View, Calif.) with analysis using FACsExpress software (De Novo Software). Initial gating on the isolated MMCs and PBMCs was performed using side scatter and CD3 fluorescence. Dead cells were excluded from this population of lymphocytes by using 7-actinomycin (7-AAD; Calbiochem, San Diego, Calif.). The live T lymphocytes were then analyzed after gating on forward and side scatter. HIV-1-infected cells were identified by positive cell surface staining using anti-mouse CD24. By performing an additional gate on the murine CD24 cells, the expression of both CCR5 and CXCR4 receptors was ascertained on the infected cell population.
Isolation of primary isolates of HIV-1 from whole blood and mucosal biopsies. All HIV-1-infected patients who served as sources for blood and mucosal biopsies had CD4 cell counts of >200/µl and HIV-1 plasma viral loads of >5,000 copies/ml despite the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Peripheral venous blood and four mucosal biopsies were collected from each patient as described above.
Phytohemagglutinin (PHA) blasts were prepared from PBMCs of healthy HIV-1-seronegative donors, resuspended at a density of 106 cells/ml in RPMI supplemented with 10% FCS and stimulated by 5 µg of PHA (Sigma Chemical Corp, St. Louis, Mo.)/ml for 72 h. The cells were then washed three times with PBS, transferred to dishes containing 106 HIV-1 patient-derived PBMCs/ml or four mucosal biopsies, and then cultured in RPMI supplemented with 10% FCS and 10 IU of IL-2/ml. HIV-1 replication was assessed in this coculture system every 3 days. In each case, virus was used for infectivity studies from cocultures in which p24 levels were found to be >20 ng/ml on day 7. Virus-containing supernatant was sterile filtered and frozen at
80°C for future experimentation.
Assessment of replication of primary viral isolates. Mucosa- and PBMC-derived HIV-1, obtained by coculture, were used to infect MMCs and PBMCs of HIV-1-seronegative patients. Infection of 2.5 × 105 PBMCs or a single minced mucosal biopsy was carried out using 1 ml of primary viral isolates (p24 = 25 to 97 ng/ml). After incubation for 4 h, the infected cells and biopsies were washed in 5 ml of PBS and 5 ml of RPMI before being plated in a 24-well plate in 500 µl of RPMI supplemented with 10% FCS, antibiotic-antimycotic solution, and 10 IU of IL-2/ml. Supernatants from these cultures were analyzed after 3 and 7 days for HIV-1 p24 protein by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Coulter, Inc., Miami, Fla). Results are expressed in terms of nanograms of p24 produced per milliliter.
Chemokine receptor usage. Chemokine receptor usage of primary HIV-1 isolates was tested on human osteosarcoma cells stably transfected with human CD4 alone or with either CCR5 or CXCR4. Cotransfected into these cells is green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat promoter. One milliliter of HIV-1-containing supernatant derived from cocultures of either the PBMCs or mucosa and 10 µM Polybrene was added to the osteosarcoma cell line for 3 h. After the cells were washed twice, they were incubated for 48 h at 37oC and 5% CO2. The viral tropism was determined by analyzing the cell lines flow cytometrically for expression of GFP, indicative of successful HIV-1 entry and replication.
Statistical methodology. Statistical comparisons were made between the percentage of MMCs and PBMCs that were infected with HIV-1, using a Student t test. All reported P values were found to be two-sided at the 0.05 significance level using Microsoft Excel software (Microsoft, Seattle, Wash.).
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RESULTS |
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MMCs are more susceptible to infection with CCR5- and X4-tropic HIV-1 than are PBMCs. The high mucosal viral loads and selectively rapid depletion of mucosal CD4+ cells after SIV and HIV-1 infection suggest that the gastrointestinal mucosa represents a significant target for HIV-1. This may reflect enhanced HIV-1 replication among infected MMCs, due to the proinflammatory mucosal environment, and/or increased numbers of HIV-1-infected cells. Given the differences in the susceptibility of the mucosal and peripheral blood compartments to HIV infection, we hypothesize that the population of gastrointestinal mucosal cells are more prone to HIV infection than are PBMCs. We determined, by performing in vitro infections utilizing replication-competent R5-tropic HIVSX and X4-tropic HIVNL4-3, in which the vpr gene has been deleted and replaced with murine heat-stable antigen (mCD24), that a greater percentage of MMCs than PBMCs become HIV-1 infected. Upon viral replication in an infected cell, the mCD24 is expressed on the cell surface and can be detected flow cytometrically. This allows for a determination of the percentage of cells that are infected with HIV-1. Initial infections were conducted on a single cell suspension of MMCs obtained by enzymatic digestion, but rapid and extensive cell death made analysis difficult. Maintaining the mucosal environment by using mechanically disrupted biopsies, rather than a single cell suspension, and supplementation of the tissue culture medium with 10 IU of IL-2/ml permitted greater retrieval of live MMCs after a 5-day culture (data not shown). IL-2 was also added to PBMC cultures. Four biopsies taken with large-cup biopsy forceps will yield ca. 106 MMCs, which were compared with infection of 106 PBMCs.
After the 5-day infection, the disaggregated cells obtained from these biopsies contain a mixed population, including epithelial cells and stromal elements in addition to MMCs. In order to better examine infected mucosal T lymphocytes for the expression of mCD24, initial gating was performed using side scatter and CD3 fluorescence. Dead cells were excluded with 7-AAD, and live T lymphocytes were analyzed by gating on forward and side scatter. mCD24 expression was analyzed on CD3+ cells, since CD4 downregulation was notable. As shown in Fig. 1, pairwise analysis of samples revealed that a significantly greater percentage of MMCs were infected with R5-tropic HIVSX compared to PBMCs (2.6% ± 0.52% versus 0.74% ± 0.28% [mean ± standard error]; P < 0.005). This phenomenon was observed with each of the eight pairs of patient samples examined. Infection with the X4-tropic HIVNL4-3 also revealed a greater percentage of infected MMCs than PBMCs. In this case, 1.7% ± 0.29% of MMCs were HIV-1 infected compared to 0.96% ± 0.05% of PBMCs (P = 0.04). In six of seven sets of samples studied, the percentage of infected MMCs exceeded the percentage of infected PBMCs as measured by mCD24 expression.
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MMCs support more HIV replication per infected cell than do PBMCs. Once entry, reverse transcription, and integration have occurred, HIV-1 replication is dependent on the cell's transcriptional and translational machinery. HIV replication is enhanced in an immunologically activated lymphocyte. Therefore, the greater degree of cellular activation of gastrointestinal mucosal lymphocytes should result in more HIV-1 replication per infected cell. Comparison of the intensity of mCD24 expression permits relative quantitation of the amount of mCD24 on the cell surface, serving as a surrogate for the degree of HIV-1 expression supported by the cells.
After flow cytometric gating on the mCD24-expressing CD3+ cells, the mean fluorescence intensity of mCD24 was determined. Significant differences are noted when the mean fluorescence intensity values of mCD24 expression on infected MMCs are compared to expression on infected PBMCs after infection with HIVSX and HIVNL4-3. After infection with HIVSX, the mean expression of mCD24 on MMCs was more than 10-fold higher than that seen on PBMCs (94.5% ± 9.8% versus 8.25% ± 0.95%; P = 0.002). The expression was lower after infection with HIVNL4-3, although it was significantly higher on MMCs than PBMCs (70.8% ± 13.7% versus 7.6% ± 1.1%; P = 0.004). We conclude based upon these results that infected MMCs support greater R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1 replication than do infected PBMCs. This result supports the prior findings of greater activation of infected mucosal cells than PBMCs, although it may also reflect greater paracrine stimulation by proinflammatory soluble mediators.The majority of MMCs coexpress CCR5 and CXCR4, while the majority
of PBMCs express CXCR4 only.
In order for HIV-1 to enter a
CD4-bearing cell, binding to a second receptor must occur; CCR5 and
CXCR4 are the principal second receptors used by HIV-1. The greater
percentage of HIVSX- and
HIVNL4-3-infected MMCs suggests that a larger
percentage of MMCs may express CCR5 and CXCR4 than PBMCs. While
previous studies have confirmed that the mucosa does harbor more
CCR5-bearing cells, the percentages of CXCR4-bearing cells in the
mucosal and peripheral blood compartments are similar. Since
CCR5-expressing cells are predominantly of an activated/memory
(CD26high CD45RAlow
CD45RO+) phenotype, while
CXCR4+ CCR5
cells are
predominantly naive cells (CD26low
CD45RA+ CD45RO
), we
hypothesized that the greater infection of MMCs by X4-tropic HIVNL4-3 might be due to coexpression of CCR5
(1, 5, 26). We have previously found that a greater
percentage of CXCR4+ CD4+
cells in the mucosa are CD45RO+, similar to that
seen among CCR5+ PBMCs (74 versus 46%;
P < 0.05) (unpublished data).
CCR5+ CXCR4+ MMCs
should support greater HIV-1 replication than
CXCR4+ CCR5
cells. In
order to examine whether CXCR4+ MMCs and
PBMCs coexpress CCR5, isolated cells were examined flow cytometrically for both chemokine receptors (Fig.
2). We confirm (3, 23) that
the percentage of MMCs that expressed CCR5 was significantly greater
than seen among the PBMCs (69.9% ± 4.7% versus 14.4% ± 2.8%;
P < 0.005). Whereas 5.4% of MMCs were
CCR5+ CXCR4
, 1.2% of
PBMCs were CCR5 single positive (P = 0.08). In both the
mucosal and peripheral blood compartments, >90% of cells expressed CXCR4, with no significant differences seen. On the other hand, significant differences were noted when coexpression of CCR5 was studied on these cells. Of all CXCR4+ PBMCs,
13.8% ± 7.6% coexpressed CCR5 compared to 72.2% ± 11.2% of
CXCR4+ MMCs (P < 0.005).
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R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1 predominantly infect CCR5+
CXCR4+ cells in the mucosal and peripheral blood
compartment.
The results presented above demonstrate that a
greater percentage of MMCs than PBMCs are infected by HIV-1, a finding
possibly explained by the greater percentage of
CCR5+ CXCR4+ cells. We
tested this possibility directly by examining the cell subpopulations
infected by HIV-1 (Fig. 3). In order to
characterize the cellular targets of the R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1
strains, we performed in vitro infections utilizing our reporter virus
system. Given that the HIV-1 bears a reporter gene expressing mCD24, we are able to flow cytometrically characterize chemokine receptor expression on HIV-1-infected cells. The ability to characterize HIV-1-infected cells in this way represents the greatest strength of
using the reporter virus constructs.
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(15.8% ± 7.3% versus 9.6% ± 6.9%; P = 0.04) compared to
infected PBMCs. The majority of
HIVSX-infected cells in both compartments coexpressed CCR5 and CXCR4 (75.4 ± 7.2% versus 65.3 ± 5.8%; P = 0.1). The remainder of
HIVSX-infected cells (24.0% of infected PBMCs
and 7.2% of infected MMCs) expressed CXCR4 but not CCR5. Since these
cells were infected with R5-tropic virus, it is possible that the level
of surface expression of CCR5 was downregulated to undetectable levels,
as has been previously described after HIV-1 infection
(7). Similar to HIVSX-infected
cells, the majority of HIVNL4-3-infected MMCs and
PBMCs coexpress CCR5 and CXCR4 (PBMCs, 77.7% ± 3.3%; MMCs, 77.0% ± 5.8%; P = not significant).
We conclude, based on these results, that despite significant
differences in chemokine receptor expression between cells in the
gastrointestinal mucosa and blood, the cellular targets of the virus
are fairly similar. R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1 predominantly target
CXCR4+ CCR5+ coexpressing
cells in both compartments. Thus, the greater percentage of infected
mucosal cells by both viral phenotypes likely reflects the
significantly greater presence of CCR5+
CXCR4+ cells in the mucosa compared to the blood.
Given the greater percentage of MMCs that express CCR5, it is likely
that more MMCs than PBMCs are infected with R5-tropic virus. It is
possible that an equal or greater number of PBMCs are infected with
X4-tropic virus but are less able to support viral replication due to
their low activation state.
Gastrointestinal MMCs support greater HIV-1 replication than do PBMCs. Due to the observed differences in the phenotype of MMCs and PBMCs, viral differences between the blood and mucosal compartments might also determine infectivity. We tested this possibility by examining the replication of primary isolates of HIV-1 cultured from paired mucosal biopsies and peripheral blood samples of HIV-1-seropositive patients. If mucosa-derived virus had increased replicative capacity compared to peripheral blood-derived virus, we would expect that the mucosa-derived virus would produce more p24 protein after infection of both MMCs and PBMCs. Alternatively, if cellular differences were accountable, as our results indicate then, regardless of the source of the infecting virus, greater HIV-1 replication would be seen after infection of MMCs than after infection of PBMCs. Infections of HIV-1-seronegative PBMCs and minced mucosal biopsies was performed with primary HIV-1 isolates obtained by short-term coculture from the blood and mucosal biopsies of HIV-1-infected patients. Primary viral isolates were obtained within 7 days of coculture to minimize selection of viral isolates with increased or decreased fitness.
As shown in Fig. 4, infections of minced mucosal biopsies using each of the three sets of mucosa- and blood-derived HIV-1 (patient 1, 97 ng of p24; patient 2, 25 ng of p24; patient 3, 75 ng of p24) produced increasing amounts of p24 protein over the 7 days of culture. In comparison, infection of PBMCs with these same sets of viral isolates showed either little or no increase in the p24 produced. As we observed above, the greater p24 production in MMCs compared to that seen in PBMCs likely reflects differences in chemokine receptor expression and the previously reported greater activation state of the mucosal cells (38, 49). These results support our hypothesis that cellular rather than viral differences account for the greater susceptibility of the mucosal compartment.
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Tropism of paired viral isolates from blood and mucosal biopsies are similar. Differences in viral tropism may also play a role in the enhancement of HIV-1 infection of the gastrointestinal mucosa. For instance, the higher percentage of mucosal than peripheral blood cells bearing CCR5 might be expected to result in preferential selection for, and retention of, R5-tropic HIV-1 in the mucosa. In order to examine the effect of differences in viral tropism on observed cellular differences in HIV-1 infection, HIV-1 cultured from mucosal biopsies and peripheral blood was characterized in terms of its chemokine receptor tropism. Viral isolates were obtained after short-term coculture with activated PBMCs to minimize the selection of viral isolates with specific chemokine receptor tropism. We utilized an osteosarcoma cell line engineered to express human CD4 and either CXCR4 or CCR5 and which expresses GFP upon HIV-1 infection.
As shown in Fig. 5, virus derived from the blood and mucosa of these four HIV-1-seropositive patients showed qualitatively identical phenotypes. In patient 1, viral isolates from both compartments were capable of infecting both CXCR4- and CCR5-expressing cell lines. Virus derived from both the mucosa and blood of patient 2 was predominantly replicated in X4-bearing cells, while that from the blood and mucosa of both patients 3 and 4 was predominantly R5-tropic. Based on these data, we conclude that HIV-1 found in the mucosa of these four patients does not differ from that found in the blood in terms of chemokine receptor utilization. Differences in viral tropism are unlikely to account for the differences in viral replication in these two compartments, and the mucosa does not appear to select for R5-tropic strains of HIV-1.
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DISCUSSION |
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We undertook this study to examine the role of differences in chemokine receptor expression on infection of MMCs and PBMCs by R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1. A greater percentage of MMCs than PBMCs are infected by both R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1. Significant differences exist in terms of chemokine receptor expression in the blood and gastrointestinal mucosa; mucosal cells are predominantly CCR5+ CXCR4+, whereas these cells make up less than 20% of the peripheral blood cells. This cell population is most susceptible to infection with both R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1 in both compartments. Regardless of whether viral isolates were derived from the blood or mucosa of HIV-1-infected patients, HIV-1 p24 production was greater in MMCs than in PBMCs. Further, the chemokine receptor tropism of these patient-derived viral isolates did not differ between compartments. We conclude based on these findings that the gastrointestinal mucosa represents a favored target for HIV-1, in part due to its large population of CXCR4+ CCR5+ target cells and not due to differences in the virus that it contains.
The gastrointestinal mucosa is a secondary lymphoid organ that contains
the majority of the body's CD4+ lymphocyte
population (6, 27) and appears to support enhanced HIV-1
replication compared to other body compartments (10, 24, 39). Our studies indicate that one significant reason for the unique susceptibility of the gastrointestinal mucosal compartment is
the greater infection of, and increased virus production from, CCR5+ CXCR4+ cells. We have
shown that the majority of gastrointestinal mucosal CD4+ cells express both CXCR4 and CCR5 and are
therefore susceptible to both R5- and X4-tropic HIV-1. In comparison,
the majority of PBMCs are CXCR4+
CCR5
and resistant to infection with R5 virus.
The data we present in this study suggest that the unique
susceptibility of the mucosal compartment is due, in part, to the
greater percentage of CCR5+
CXCR4+ cells that it contains compared to
blood. Still, we have not proven that mucosal
CCR5+ CXCR4+ cells
are more prone to R5- or X4-tropic HIV or produce more virus than do
CCR5+ CXCR4+ PBMCs.
Antigenic stimulation of lymphocytes drives HIV replication (36,
40, 42). Therefore, secondary lymphoid organs are the main sites
of HIV replication in vivo (8, 29). The majority of
gastrointestinal mucosal T lymphocytes are memory cells and exhibit
phenotypic and functional features of activation (31, 34).
This likely reflects the vital immunologic role these cells play at the
major boundary between humans and the external environment. The higher
expression of CCR5 in the gastrointestinal mucosa likely reflects this
state of inflammation since CCR5 is expressed on activated memory
lymphocytes (5). Given these characteristics, the enhanced
susceptibility to and replication of HIV-1 in the gastrointestinal
mucosa is expected. Compared to PBMCs, the greater percentage of
CCR5-expressing MMCs permits higher levels of infection by R5-tropic
virus. Since these cells are predominantly of a memory and/or activated
phenotype, they support HIV replication. Since the majority of MMCs
expressing CXCR4 also coexpress CCR5 and are therefore memory and/or
activated cells, infection of these cells with X4-tropic virus will
also result in virus production. In comparison, infected
CXCR4+ CCR5
PBMCs,
which have a naive phenotype, should not support significant viral replication. Since both M- and T-tropic HIV-1 predominantly infected CCR5+ CXCR4+ cells
in both compartments, the higher expression of mCD24 on the infected
MMCs may reflect a higher degree of activation in the mucosa of these
phenotypically similar cells. We have previously shown that
CCR5-bearing MMCs express higher amounts of CCR5 per cell than do
CCR5-bearing PBMCs (3), which could potentially reflect a
higher degree of activation.
A number of viral factors have been proposed to influence the clinical course of HIV-1 infection. These include quasispecies diversity, coreceptor usage, cellular tropism, and replicative capacity. HIV-1 quasispecies constantly evolve in response to their dynamic relationship with their cellular targets and the host immune response. If distinct viral evolution occurs in the PBMC and mucosal compartment, then viral factors could potentially explain the high mucosal susceptibility to HIV and SIV. Since viral replication and therefore genotypic evolution are driven by the inflammatory state of the infected cell, the dynamic inflammatory environment of the gastrointestinal mucosa may drive viral evolution to a greater extent than is seen in the peripheral blood compartment (41). Enhanced viral evolution at an inflamed mucosal site was suggested by Panther et al., who showed greater env heterogeneity in the female genital tract compared to paired blood samples (33). A number of other studies examining lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissue compartments have also suggested compartmentalization of viral evolution (9, 15, 20, 21, 22, 30, 51). Though there have been few studies of HIV-1 evolution in the intestinal mucosa, genotypic differences in the env, pro, and reverse transcriptase genes of HIV-1 quasispecies in the intestinal mucosa and blood have been described (35, 43, 44). HIV-1 isolates from the gastrointestinal mucosa have also been shown to differ from paired blood isolates in terms of their ability to induce cytopathology in infected cells and showed a greater sensitivity to serum neutralization in one study (4). Although we did not find significant differences in the ability of mucosa- and PBMC-derived viruses to replicate in allogeneic MMCs or PBMCs, infection of MMCs supported greater replication of each viral isolate compared to infection of PBMCs. Therefore, cellular characteristics appeared to play a more vital role than did viral replicative ability.
Biological properties such as chemokine receptor tropism might differentiate mucosa-derived viruses from those isolated from other tissues and blood. Changes in the diversity of the viral envelope gene underlie changes in cellular tropism, coreceptor usage, and immune system evasion and therefore may determine the ability to infect and spread within cells in a given anatomic compartment (11, 17, 48). Compartmental differences in viral phenotype have been described in various tissues, including lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, kidney, liver, testes, lung, and brain (25, 45). Al-Mulla et al. showed that virus isolated from the gastrointestinal mucosa and blood may differ phenotypically in terms of syncytium induction (2), although these authors did not specifically examine chemokine receptor tropism. While most studies have suggested independent tissue-specific evolution, one study did show restricted sequence variability in the HIV env gene among different tissues that included the colonic mucosa. We found that chemokine receptor usage and tropism did not differ between viral isolates from the mucosal and PBMC compartments. This may be explained by the similar chemokine receptor expression of the cells that were infected in both compartments. In addition, in tissues, such as the gastrointestinal mucosa, where trafficking of lymphocytes is common, equalization of viral quasispecies between compartments may occur (13).
The results that we present may have important therapeutic implications. While the results of our in vitro assessments may not adequately mimic or reliably predict the biological complexity found in an HIV-infected person, these findings do suggest that further study of HIV immunopathogenesis in the mucosal compartment is necessary. Given the enhanced infection of mucosal lymphoid cells by HIV infection, perhaps therapies should be directed specifically toward this important compartment. Efforts to suppress mucosal inflammation could potentially decrease recruitment of CCR5+ CD4+ lymphocytes to the mucosa. Suppression of mucosal inflammation might decrease HIV replication in HIV-infected cells. Future work should further compare the activation state of the dual chemokine receptor-expressing cells in the blood and mucosa to determine whether a higher state of cellular activation accounts for the greater HIV-1 replication in MMCs. Additional experiments could also determine whether the CCR5+ CXCR4+ PBMCs home to, or derive from, the gastrointestinal mucosa.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported in part by grants AI-01668 and AI-01610 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as by the UCLA Center for AIDS Research Core Laboratories of Mucosal Immunology (AI-28697) and the Glaxo Wellcome Institute for Digestive Health. Funding for this research was also provided in part by Universitywide AIDS Research Project (UARP) CC99-LA-002.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center for HIV and Digestive Diseases, Division of Digestive Diseases, Department of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine, 1529 McDonald Research Laboratories, 675 Charles E. Young Dr. South, Los Angeles, CA 90095. Phone: (310) 794-7195. Fax: (310) 267-0289. E-mail: mpoles{at}ucla.edu.
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