Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Journal of Virology, September 2002, p. 9103-9111, Vol. 76, No. 18
0022-538X/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.76.18.9103-9111.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Received 22 March 2002/ Accepted 7 June 2002
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
Most circulating peripheral T lymphocytes and many in lymphoid tissues are in a G0 resting state. Various stimuli, including growth factors and antigen-mediated T-cell activation, can induce their progression through the cell cycle. Treatment with anti-CD3 antibodies alone leads T lymphocytes only into G1a, where they remain refractory to HIV infection (20). Costimulation through the CD28 receptor is accompanied by a transition into G1b and by the establishment of a state of permissiveness to HIV and HIV-based vectors. Similarly, the constitutive expression of an activated form of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) or treatment with cytokines such as interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-4, IL-7, or IL-15 can render T lymphocytes susceptible to HIV-mediated transduction (18, 38). However, what particular changes in the intracellular milieu are responsible for inducing HIV permissiveness in T cells remain undefined. The question is of importance, because one of the primary in vivo targets of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) is a T cell that fails to exhibit the hallmarks of a fully activated lymphocyte (48).
IL-7 is a lymphokine critical for T-lymphocyte development, which also promotes the growth and survival of naïve and antigen-stimulated mature T cells (16). In HIV-infected individuals, circulating levels of IL-7 are strongly correlated with CD4+-T-cell loss, reflecting at least in part an increased production of this cytokine by dendritic cells within lymphocyte-depleted tissues (26). While this probably represents a homeostatic response to lymphopenia, it may contribute to increased viral burden and accelerated disease progression. Higher circulating levels of IL-7 are indeed associated with greater viral loads, corroborating the stimulating effect of IL-7 on HIV-1 replication in vitro (5, 34).
With the long-term goal of characterizing the molecular events that render resting T cells supportive of HIV-1 replication and of identifying cellular cofactors required for the immediate early steps of viral replication, we investigated the modalities through which IL-7 exert this influence. The results of our experiments shed light on the signaling events that govern IL-7-induced HIV susceptibility of primary T cells. Furthermore, our data reveal the existence of subset-specific differences in the cytokine response, hence HIV permissiveness, of mature T lymphocytes.
|
|
|---|
Flow cytometry.
For analysis of surface protein expression (CD25, CD69, HLA-DR, and IL-7 receptor
[IL-7R
] and common
[
c] chains), cells were incubated with the appropriate phycoerythrin-conjugated monoclonal antibody (purchased from Immunotech or Pharmingen) on ice for 30 min, washed two times, and fixed in phosphate-buffered saline-0.1% bovine serum albumin with 1% formaldehyde. Background fluorescence was measured by using an immunoglobulin isotype control antibody. Staining of green fluorescent protein (GFP) or yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) expression were analyzed on a FACScan using the CellQuest software (Becton Dickinson). Live cells were gated based on side scatter. When indicated, cells were sorted using a FACSVantage (Becton Dickinson).
Virus production and infections.
Replication-defective lentivirus vector particles pseudotyped with G protein of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV G) envelope were produced by 3-plasmid transient cotransfection into 293T epithelial cell lines as previously described (25). The HIV-derived packaging construct was pCMV
R8.2 or pCMV
R8.91 (49). The HIV vector plasmids were ploxEF-GFP with the posttranscriptional regulatory element of woodchuck hepatitis virus (32) with or without the central polypurine tract (33, 47). Wild-type virus was produced by 293T cells transfection with R9, an X4-tropic HIV-1 molecular clone (15). Transfection medium was replaced after 16 h with fresh culture medium. Viral supernatants were harvested at 48 h posttransfection, filtered through 0.45-µm-pore-size nitrocellulose membranes, ultracentrifuged through a 20% sucrose cushion, resuspended in a minimal volume of medium, aliquoted, and stored frozen at -80°C until use. Vector titers were determined by infecting HeLa cells with serial dilutions of viral supernatants followed by flow cytometry analysis of GFP-positive cells 48 h after transduction. The titers of wild-type HIV-1 stocks were determined on long terminal repeat-lacZ-containing CD4+ HeLa P4 cells. Transduction was performed at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1 to 300 at 3 or 4 days post-phytohemagglutinin (PHA) stimulation or IL-7 treatment. For dual transduction experiments, GFP and/or YFP vectors were used at the same time to infect the indicated cell types. The viral supernatant was washed off after 12 to 16 h, and transgene expression was analyzed by FACS 5 to 6 days later. The percentage of expected dually transduced cells has been calculated according to the following formula: [(GFPTotal + 100] YFPTotal. HIV-1 infections were conducted and monitored as previously described (1).
For cyclosporine (CSA) and wortmannin experiments, the drugs were added, respectively, 30 min and 1 h before PHA stimulation or IL-7 treatment.
PCR amplification. Cells were sorted for GFP expression 5 days after the last round of infection with DNase-treated viral supernatants and lysed using the DNeasy kit lysis buffer (Qiagen AG). PCR amplification was performed using HIV- and ß-globin-specific primers as previously described (1).
Amplified products were resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis.
Cell cycle analyses. RNA and DNA content were measured as previously described (19, 20). Briefly, a total of 5 x 105 cells were suspended in a buffer containing 0.03% saponin (Sigma), and 7-amino-actinomycin D (7-AAD) (Sigma) was added at a final concentration of 20 µM. The cells were incubated at room temperature for 30 min and cooled on ice for at least 5 min before adding pyronin (PY) Y (Polysciences) at a final concentration of 5 µM. After incubation for an additional 10 min on ice, cells were analyzed with the CellQuest program.
Protein analyses. Western blotting was performed as previously described (18), using an NFATc-specific mouse monoclonal antibody (7A6) and a Bcl-2-reactive rabbit polyclonal antibody (both from Santa Cruz Biotechnology).
|
|
|---|
. VSV G was used to pseudotype the particles. The targets were either fully quiescent T lymphocytes, PHA/IL-2-activated cells, or cells maintained in the presence of IL-7 for various lengths of time. Transduction efficiency was assessed at regular intervals, and at day 6 postinfection transgene expression was noted to be robust and stable. At an MOI that allowed transduction of more than 80% of PHA/IL-2-treated adult T lymphocytes, <0.1% GFP-positive cells could be detected in a resting population, whether or not accessory genes were present in the packaging construct (not illustrated). With IL-7, a significant proportion of adult T cells could be transduced with the HIV-based vector, irrespective of their naïve (CD45 RA+ RO-) or memory (CD45 RO+ RA-) phenotype, even though memory cells were more sensitive (Fig. 1, left panels). CB T lymphocytes, which are almost exclusively of the naïve type, were highly susceptible to HIV transduction (Fig. 1, right panels) and HIV-1 infection (see Fig. 3B). IL-7-treated adult T cells were refractory to an oncoretrovirus vector derived from murine leukemia virus, consistent with their nondividing state (not illustrated). Of note, 4 days of cytokine exposure was required to render PB T cells fully susceptible to HIV transduction, while only 1 to 2 days of PHA/IL-2 treatment was sufficient.
![]() View larger version (53K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. HIV-1-mediated transduction of IL-7-treated lymphocytes. CD4+ T cells purified from either PB (left panels) or CB (right panels) were treated with IL-7 for 4 days and exposed to a VSV-G-pseudotyped GFP-expressing HIV-based vector. Six days postinfection, cells were labeled with CD45RO- or RA-specific antibodies and analyzed for GFP expression by FACS. Results shown are representative of at least three independent experiments.
|
![]() View larger version (19K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. HIV-1 replication in PB and CB CD4 T lymphocytes. (A) HIV vector-resistant PB T cells do not support wild-type HIV-1 replication. IL-7-treated PB CD4+ T cells subjected to saturating rounds of transduction with a GFP vector were sorted for GFP expression and exposed with wild-type HIV-1. Untreated quiescent or PHA-activated cells served as controls. Viral replication was monitored by measuring p24 capsid production in the supernatant. RT measurements (not illustrated) gave similar results. (B) CB T cells are HIV-1 permissive. Resting or IL-7-treated CD4+ T cells were infected with wild-type HIV-1, and RT activity was assessed.
|
and
chains of the IL-7R (Fig. 2B). Moreover, adding IL-4 or IL-15 to IL-7 did not increase the final percentage of cells that could be infected (data not shown). To confirm the existence of differentially susceptible subsets of cells, we performed a dual transduction experiment by inoculating the lymphocytes with two different vectors, one expressing GFP and the other its yellow derivative YFP. Even at a low MOI of one of the vectors, the percentage of doubly transduced cells was significantly higher than expected if all targets in the culture had been equally susceptible, in sharp contrast with results obtained in HeLa or 293T cells (Table 1).
![]() View larger version (26K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. Limited transduction susceptibility of IL-7-treated PB T cells. (A) Increasing amounts of GFP vector were used to transduce PB T cells left quiescent (circles), activated with PHA (diamonds), or treated with IL-7 for 4 days (squares). HeLa cells (triangles) served as a control, and GFP expression was assessed by FACS analysis. (B) The expression of the IL-7R (left panel) and c (right panel) chains (right panel) was analyzed by FACS on highly purified resting CD4+ T cells, using the corresponding phycoerythrin-conjugated monoclonal antibodies (open histogram) or an immunoglobulin isotype control (filled histogram). Upon IL-7 treatment, both subunits were downregulated (not shown).
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Dual transduction experiment
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 2. HIV-1 vector susceptibility of IL-7-treated PB T cells is fixed over time
|
Reverse transcription is blocked in IL-7-treated HIV-resistant T lymphocytes. HIV infection of resting T lymphocytes is blocked at several preintegration levels, including reverse transcription (36, 43, 44). To examine the fate of the virus in IL-7-exposed, transduction-resistant adult PB T cells, the presence of early and late viral reverse transcripts was examined in GFP+ and GFP- cells sorted 5 days after inoculation with saturating levels of a GFP-expressing HIV vector (Fig. 4A). As expected, both types of reverse transcriptase (RT) products were found in GFP+ cells. While early reverse transcripts were also detected in cells that remained GFP negative, indicating that the virus had entered, they did not contain late reverse transcript. Thus, from a virological standpoint, these cells exhibited a phenotype very reminiscent of that observed in quiescent T cells. Further strengthening this parallel, when either resting or IL-7-exposed PB T cells were treated with PHA and IL-2 even as shortly as 24 h after inoculation, no increase in the percentage of transduced cells was observed (Fig. 4B and data not shown). Therefore, in none of these two situations is a stable infection intermediate established.
![]() View larger version (39K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 4. Block to reverse transcription in HIV-resistant IL-7-treated T cells. (A) Cells exposed to saturating rounds of transduction were sorted according to GFP expression and subjected to PCR analysis with primers specific for early (R/U5) or late (R/Gag) viral reverse transcripts or for ß-globin cellular DNA. Sensitivities of the two primer pairs were controlled using the same fivefold dilutions of vector plasmid DNA. (B) Resting T cells were treated with IL-7 for 4 days and transduced with a GFP vector. Cells were maintained in the presence of the cytokine or additionally treated with PHA 24 h posttransduction. Six days later GFP expression was measured by FACS analysis. Percentages and mean cell fluorescence are indicated inside each panel. The absence of change in the fraction of GFP+ cells after PHA treatment indicates that infection was irreversibly blocked in vector-exposed, GFP-negative cells. The increased mean fluorescence of the positive cells likely results from the transcriptional activation of the integrated proviruses.
|
chain CD25. However, this molecule was not a predictive marker of lentivector susceptibility, as transduced cells appeared as often CD25- as CD25+ (Fig. 5). Furthermore, when we attempted to sort CD25 positive and negative cells prior to transduction with a HIV-based vector, both subpopulations appeared transducible, although the low levels of CD25 expression prevented a clear-cut separation of the two subpopulations (data not shown). Correlating this induction of CD25, about 20% of the cells started to divide when IL-2 was added to IL-7 (not illustrated). This clearly distinct phenotype, compared with that of T cells treated with IL-7 only, further indicates that IL-7 does not induce HIV permissiveness through the induction of CD25 expression and IL-2 secretion.
![]() View larger version (46K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 5. Lack of correlation between CD25 expression and HIV permissiveness. PB-derived primary T cells were either left quiescent (upper-left panel), stimulated with PHA (upper-right panel) or cultured in IL-7 for 4 days. IL-7-treated cells were either mock-infected (lower-left panel) or exposed to a GFP vector (lower-right panel). Six days later, cells were labeled with a phycoerythrin-conjugated CD25-specific antibody (anti-CD25PE) and analyzed by FACS.
|
![]() View larger version (26K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 6. HIV susceptibility of IL-7-treated cells correlates with their cell cycle status. (A) Cell cycle analysis of resting (upper-left panel), PHA-stimulated (upper-right panel), or IL-7-treated PB (lower-left panel) or CB (lower-right panel) T cells. Cells were stained for DNA and RNA levels using 7-AAD and PY, respectively, and analyzed by FACS. FACS-quadrant correspondence of different cell cycle phases is shown in the upper-left panel. Percentages of cells having exited G0 are indicated in other panels. (B) Kinetics of entry in G1b and acquisition of transduction permissiveness to a GFP vector (MOI of 4) of resting T cells or cells cultured for 1, 2, 3, or 4 days in the presence of IL-7. (C) FACS-based analysis of the cell cycle status of GFP- and GFP+ population of IL-7-treated PB T cells exposed to saturating rounds of transduction with a GFP vector and sorted for transgene expression.
|
NFAT independence of IL-7-induced HIV permissiveness. The forced constitutive expression of NFATc, a member of the family of the nuclear factor of activated T cells that is normally induced by T-cell receptor signaling (17), was previously shown to be sufficient to render T cells permissive for HIV replication in the presence of low levels of IL-2 (18). NFAT expression was thus monitored in adult resting T cells exposed to IL-7 for various lengths of time (Fig. 7A). While NFAT was readily induced in PHA-activated T lymphocytes, it remained undetectable in IL-7-treated cells. To confirm the NFAT-independence of HIV-mediated transduction of these targets, we used the drug CSA. This immunosuppressive molecule forms a complex with cyclophilin A, thereby inhibiting calcineurin, a calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase that activates NFAT by mediating the dephosphorylation necessary for the nuclear translocation of this transcription factor (12, 22). Resting adult PB T lymphocytes were maintained in the presence of PHA or IL-7 and different concentrations of CSA for 3 days before challenge with a GFP-containing HIV-based vector, and transgene expression was examined 5 days later (Fig. 7B). Whereas CSA reduced the transduction of PHA-stimulated T cells by more than 10-fold, it had no inhibitory effect in the case of IL-7-treated T cells.
![]() View larger version (34K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 7. HIV-mediated transduction of IL-7-treated T cells is NFAT independent and CSA resistant. (A) Total cell extracts from highly purified resting PB T cells stimulated as indicated were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by Western blotting with an anti-NFATc monoclonal antibody. PB T cells stimulated by PHA in the absence or presence of CSA (1 µg) are shown as controls (left panel). (B) Resting T cells were treated as indicated and exposed to a GFP vector 3 days later. GFP expression was assessed by FACS at day 6 posttransduction.
|
![]() View larger version (43K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 8. The PI3K pathway does not mediate IL-7-induced HIV permissiveness. (A) Upregulation of Bcl-2 in IL-7-treated T lymphocytes is inhibited by wortmannin. Resting T cells were cultured in control medium or with 25 ng/ml IL-7 alone or together with 1 or 5 µM wortmannin (Wort) for indicated times. Bcl-2 expression was monitored by Western blot analysis of normalized amounts of proteins. (B) Transduction of PB T cells under indicated conditions: resting, PHA-activated, IL-7, or with IL-7 plus wortmannin at 1 or 5 µM (W1 and W5, respectively).
|
|
|
|---|
Our results are in agreement with a study showing that treatment with IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, or IL-15 can allow HIV-1 infection of quiescent adult T cells (38). However, we failed to confirm the more recent claim that IL-7-treated CB lymphocytes, in spite of dividing actively, remain resistant to HIV-mediated gene transfer (10). Instead, we found that these cells are highly susceptible to transduction with a VSV G-pseudotyped HIV-derived vector as well as infection with wild-type HIV-1. This is not surprising, because IL-7-treated CB T cells can be efficiently transduced with murine leukemia virus-based vectors (11). Furthermore, CB T cells are most likely recent thymic migrants, and thymocytes can be infected by HIV-1 both in vitro and in vivo (37).
Analyzing the modalities of IL-7-induced HIV permissiveness in adult T cells yielded several types of information. First, it confirmed that in this setting both naïve and memory cells can be transduced, as previously described (38). Furthermore, it demonstrated that acquisition of susceptibility does not correlate with the expression of prototypic activation markers. Finally, based on the analysis of cells stimulated either through the T-cell receptor alone or via CD3 and CD28, it had been suggested that induction of HIV permissiveness coincides with progression of quiescent T lymphocytes to the G1b phase of the cell cycle (20). Our examination of IL-7-treated adult PB T cells supports this contention. It was previously shown that the forced expression of the transcription factor NFATc, in the presence of low levels of IL-2, can induce a highly permissive state for HIV-1 replication in primary CD4+ T cells (18). Our study does not contradict this evidence but demonstrates that NFAT activation is required for none of the steps that lead to HIV integration. Furthermore, our observation that HIV-based vectors can transduce IL-7-treated T cells in the presence of CSA indicates that HIV-1 reverse transcription, nuclear import, and integration are completely independent from signaling pathways blocked by this drug.
The vast majority of PB T lymphocytes expressed the IL-7R and responded to its ligand, as illustrated by the high rates of survival observed when these cells were cultured in the presence of this cytokine, contrasting with the rapid death of untreated cells. However, IL-7-responsive mature T lymphocytes could be separated in two distinct subsets: on the one hand, cells that stayed in G0/G1a and remained resistant to HIV-mediated gene transfer, and on the other hand, cells that progressed to G1b and became susceptible to infection. In cells that could not be transduced, reverse transcription was impaired and infection was irreversibly blocked. This closely parallels the phenotype observed in resting T lymphocytes, where the preintegration of HIV or HIV-derived vectors is highly labile (7, 43, 44; our unpublished results).
The differential response of adult T lymphocytes to IL-7 could represent quantitative or qualitative variations in the response to this cytokine. The receptors for IL-7 and four other cytokines, IL-2, IL-4, IL-9, and IL-15, have the same heteromeric structure, comprising a shared element (
c chain) (29) and one or two ligand-specific chains (21). All five
c-chain-dependent cytokines activate the Janus family tyrosine kinases Jak1 and Jak3, thereby triggering the Jak-STAT signaling cascade. Jak1 associates with the cytoplasmic tail of the lymphokine-specific component of the receptor, whereas Jak3 associates primarily with the
c chain (28). Upon IL-7 binding, Jak1 and Jak3 are activated and phosphorylate tyrosine-based docking sites on the receptor, which results in recruiting the STAT3, STAT5a, and STAT5b proteins via their SH2 domains (30, 45). These STATs are then phosphorylated, form homo- or heterodimers, and translocate to the nucleus, where they bind target sequences. IL-7 can also activate the PI3K pathway and its downstream effector protein kinase B, apparently through the recruitment of PI3K by STAT3. While the range of genes activated by IL-7 is far from fully characterized, the IL-7/PI3K/protein kinase B pathway appears to be involved in T-cell survival and proliferation, while STAT5 mediates T-cell differentiation (30). Based on the current understanding on IL-7-mediated signaling, our demonstration that wortmannin blocks IL-7-induced T-cell survival and Bcl-2 synthesis but not HIV permissiveness indicates that the latter phenomenon is independent of PI3K and suggests that it is instead likely mediated by the STAT5 pathway. Importantly, when IL-4 or IL-15 was added to IL-7, the fraction of HIV-transducible T cells did not increase. It suggests that a same factor restricts the response of circulating T cells to all three cytokines. The basis of this restriction is as yet unknown, and whether it also applies to lymphocytes residing in lymphoid organs remains to be determined.
Newly induced STAT DNA binding activity can generally be detected within minutes of cytokine addition, yet 3 to 4 days of IL-7 treatment were necessary for quiescent T lymphocytes to become maximally susceptible to HIV-mediated transduction. This strongly suggests that the establishment of virus permissiveness is a quantitatively demanding phenomenon, for instance because the buildup of significant amounts of essential substrates or a complicated degree of intracellular remodeling is required. If a crucial cellular cofactor of HIV is induced by IL-7, it is more likely to represent a master transcriptional regulator than, for instance, a chaperone interacting directly with the preintegration complex. Even though the nature of this putative regulator remains to be elucidated, our demonstration that IL-7-treated HIV-permissive cells can be easily separated from HIV-resistant cells by cell sorting opens the way to genomic- and proteomic-based comparisons of these two subsets. This will hopefully shed light on cellular parameters that are key to the completion of the immediate-early steps of HIV replication, and furthermore it will allow a differential dissection of cytokine-induced signaling pathways in T lymphocytes. Ultimately, it should also be possible to determine whether the various stimuli that can render resting T cells permissive for HIV, such as cytokine exposure, T-cell receptor stimulation, or contact with virus-loaded dendritic cells, all act through common downstream effectors or via completely distinct pathways.
This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Gabriella Giorgi-Cavaglieri Foundation, the Dormeur Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (D.T.) and the INSERM (M.G.).
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»