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Journal of Virology, May 2003, p. 5846-5854, Vol. 77, No. 10
0022-538X/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.77.10.5846-5854.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Erik De Clercq,2 Dominique Schols,2 Mark Weinstein,3 and Mark A. Goldsmith1,4,
Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology,1 Department of Pathology, General Hospital,3 Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94141-9100,4 Rega Institute for Medical Research, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium2
Received 4 December 2002/ Accepted 18 February 2003
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Apoptosis of CD4 T cells has been proposed as a key mechanism underlying CD4 T-cell depletion in vivo (1, 34, 47), but the relative contributions of HIV-1-induced killing of productively infected cells as opposed to uninfected bystander cells remain highly controversial (8, 15, 17, 27, 39). To study HIV-1-induced cell death, we performed infections of ex vivo human lymphoid tissue cultures. This highly relevant system is permissive for HIV-1 infection independent of exogenous stimulation by mitogens or interleukin-2 and maintains its natural cytokine milieu, cellular activation status, and cell-to-cell interactions (19). Critically, these are all factors which have been shown to be crucial for the determination of HIV-1-induced cell death (10, 21, 26, 30, 35, 42).
We investigated the relative contributions of apoptosis in productively infected cells and apoptosis of uninfected bystander CD4 T cells to overall lymphocyte depletion. We observed massive HIV-1-induced apoptosis of bystander CD4 T cells following infections with X4 viruses but detected little bystander killing following infection with R5 viruses. Furthermore, bystander killing was critically dependent on the interaction of X4 gp120 with the chemokine receptor CXCR4 on CD4 T cells. These results provide important insights regarding the mechanism underlying the higher virulence of X4 viruses in vivo.
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Culture and infection of human lymphoid tissues ex vivo. Human noninflammatory tonsil tissue (provided by the National Disease Research Interchange [Philadelphia, Pa.] or the Kaiser Hospitals in San Francisco, South San Francisco, and San Rafael, Calif.) was removed during routine tonsillectomy. To prepare dispersed human lymphoid ex vivo cultures, tonsil tissue was mechanically dispersed by cutting tissue in 2- to 3-mm blocks and passing them through 70- and 40-µm cell strainers. Cells were washed in phosphate-buffered saline, and 2 x 106 isolated cells were plated in 96-well U-bottom plates in a final volume of 200 µl. Culture medium (RPMI 1640 supplemented with 15% FBS, 1% nonessential amino acids [Mediatech], 1 mM sodium pyruvate [Mediatech], 2 mM L-glutamine [Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.], 2.5 U of amphotericin B [Invitrogen] per ml, 100 µg of gentamicin [Invitrogen] per ml, and 100 µg of ampicillin [Sigma] per ml) was changed every 3 days without dispersing the pellet. Human lymphoid tissue blocks were prepared as described previously (13, 19, 23, 24, 32, 41, 44). Within 24 h of preparation tissue blocks were inoculated with HIV-1 at 60 50% tissue culture infective doses (TCID50) per block, and dispersed lymphoid cultures were infected at 80 TCID50 per well. The TCID50 was determined by terminal dilution of the virus stocks in quadruplicate on heterologous PBMC (41).
Assessment of CD4 depletion and measurement of apoptosis. CD4 depletion and apoptosis with annexin V-staining, activation of caspase-3, or the breakdown of the mitochondrial membrane potential were determined as described previously (29). To analyze apoptosis and infection of cells simultaneously, cells were first stained with annexin V-phycoerythrin, washed extensively, fixed for 30 min at room temperature in 1% paraformaldehyde, washed again extensively, and stained with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated antibody directed to p24 (clone KC57; Beckman Coulter, Miami, Fla.) and the appropriate surface markers in 0.1% saponin. Determination of caspase-3 activation combined with simultaneous p24 assessment was done with the CaspaTag caspase activity kit (Intergen, Purchase, N.Y.). Briefly, cells were incubated at 37°C for 1 h in FAM-peptide-FMK solution, fixed, and stained with monoclonal antibodies directed to CD4, CD3, and p24 as described above.
Isolation and coculture of CD4-enriched, CFSE-labeled cells. To isolate CD4-enriched cells from uninfected human ex vivo lymphoid cultures, cultures were stained with FITC-conjugated antibodies directed to CD8, CD19, and CD14 (all from Becton Dickinson) and incubated with anti-FITC MicroBeads (Miltenyi Biotec, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany). CD4 cells were enriched by using the depletion mode on an autoMACS bead sorter (Miltenyi Biotec). CD8- CD14- CD19- cells were stained with 10 µM 5 (and 6)-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) (Molecular Probes) for 15 min at 37°C. A total of 150,000 CFSE-positive cells (more than 90% CD4 T cells) were pretreated for at least 4 h at 37°C with 250 nM AMD3100, 5 µM zidovudine (AZT) (Sigma), or a 50-µg/ml concentration of one of the following antibodies: anti-CXCR4 (clone 12G5) (Becton Dickinson), anti-CCR5 (clone 2D7) (Becton Dickinson), or anti-gp120 (clone 1101) (Immunodiagnostics, Woburn, Mass.). In parallel, human ex vivo lymphoid cultures were infected with 200 TCID50 of the indicated virus per well and cultured for 6 days. On day 6, viral replication was assessed by using an anti-p24 ELISA. Pretreated, CFSE-labeled, uninfected cells were then added to the respective infected human ex vivo lymphoid cultures containing about 500,000 CD4 T cells in 2 x 106 total cells. The medium was changed every 3 days and supplemented with the indicated inhibitor. At 6 days after the start of the coculture, apoptosis in CFSE-positive CD4 T cells was measured by using annexin V staining. An aliquot of these cells was used to determine infection by intracellular p24 staining.
Preparation of culture supernatants and transfer to uninfected ex vivo human lymphoid cultures. Human ex vivo lymphoid cultures were infected with 200 TCID50 of the indicated viral strain per well. At days 6 and 9 after infection, supernatants of the infected cultures were harvested, centrifuged at 2,300 x g for 10 min at 4°C, and sterile filtered to remove all contaminating cells. Cleared supernatants were diluted 1:1 with fresh medium, and the p24 concentration was determined by using an anti-p24 ELISA and adjusted to 45 ng/ml. Parallel uninfected cultures of the same donor were pretreated for 4 h with 5 µM AZT, and the medium was than removed and replaced with diluted supernatants. Cells were cultured for an additional 6 days in the presence or absence of AZT. At 6 days after the initial supernatant transfer, apoptosis in the CD3+ CD8+ and CD3+ CD8- cells was assessed by annexin V staining. An aliquot of these cells was used to determine infection by intracellular p24 staining.
In situ hybridization and TUNEL staining. Ex vivo human lymphoid cultures were harvested 8 days after infection, fixed for 30 min at room temperature with 1% paraformaldehyde, and stained with FITC-labeled anti-CD3 antibody. CD3+ cells were isolated as described above, pelleted, and resuspended in 2.5% agarose. After embedding of the cell clots in paraffin, sample sections were subjected to HIV-1 RNA in situ hybridization as described previously (16). The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed with the Apotag peroxidase kit (Intergen). Tissue sections were deparaffinized in xylene, hydrated, and pretreated with proteinase K (Dako, Carpinteria, Calif.) at room temperature for 25 min. The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase enzyme was diluted 1:10 in reaction buffer and applied to the sections for 1 h at 37°C in a humid chamber. Detection was performed with an antidigoxigenin conjugate and a diaminobenzidine peroxidase substrate (Sigma). Slides were counterstained with 25% hematoxylin (Shandon, Pittsburgh, Pa.) and dehydrated, and cover slips were applied with Permount (Fisher, Pittsburgh, Pa.).
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Infection of ex vivo human lymphoid cultures with the prototypic X4 molecular clone NL4-3 greatly increased the number of cells displaying apoptotic markers (Fig. 1C and F) compared to uninfected control cultures (Fig. 1A and D). In striking contrast, after infection with the R5 molecular clone 49-5, which differs from NL4-3 only in the coreceptor-determining V3 loop of gp120 (48), only a minority of CD4 T cells showed these apoptotic markers (Fig. 1B and E). Consistent with the effects seen for these two molecular clones, an R5X4 primary isolate (7/86), but not an R5 primary isolate (1/85) derived from the same patient (11), induced widespread apoptosis of CD4 T cells (Fig. 2A). Apoptosis of CD4 T cells in the context of X4 infections of human dispersed lymphoid cultures ex vivo was followed by marked depletion of CD4 T cells (Fig. 2B). In contrast, R5 strains caused only mild depletion relative to uninfected controls. Notably, R5 and X4 strains replicated with comparable kinetics (Fig. 2C). Similar results were observed in experiments using human lymphoid tissue blocks (data not shown). It is noteworthy that neither the R5 nor the X4 HIV-1 strains caused significant apoptosis of CD8 T cells (Fig. 2A) or B cells (data not shown) in human lymphoid histocultures.
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FIG. 1. X4 but not R5 HIV-1 induces massive apoptosis among CD4 T cells. Human lymphoid cultures ex vivo were infected for 12 days with the R5 viral strain 49-5 (B and E) or the X4 viral strain NL4-3 (C and F) or kept uninfected (A and D). Apoptosis of CD4 T cells was determined independently by annexin V staining (A to F), caspase-3 activity (A to C), and depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane (D to F). Presented are flow cytometry dot plots from a typical experiment from among three independent experiments using different donor tissues.
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FIG. 2. X4 but not R5 HIV-1 induces pronounced apoptosis and depletion among CD4 T cells. Human lymphoid cultures ex vivo were infected with the R5 strain 1/85 or 49-5, the R5X4 strain 7/86, or the X4 strain NL4-3 or kept uninfected. (A) At day 12, apoptosis among CD4 and CD8 T cells was determined by using annexin V staining. (B) CD4 T-cell depletion displayed as CD4/CD8 ratio. (C) Viral replication was monitored in the same infections by assessing the p24 concentration in the culture medium at days 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13 after infection, using an anti-p24 ELISA. Shown are the mean values (n = 3) with standard errors of the means from a representative experiment from among six experiments with different donor tissue.
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FIG. 3. Apoptosis exceeds by far the infection level in NL4-3-infected lymphoid cultures ex vivo. CD3+ T cells were isolated from human lymphoid cultures ex vivo infected for 7 days with 49-5 (B and E) or NL4-3 (C and F) or from uninfected controls (A and D). (A to C) Viral infection was determined by HIV-1 RNA in situ hybridization. Representative infected cells are indicated by arrows. (D to F) Apoptosis was determined in parallel samples by using the TUNEL assay. Apoptotic cells are characterized by brown staining, and representative apoptotic cells are indicated by arrows.
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FIG. 4. X4 but not R5 strains induce extensive apoptosis in bystander CD4 T cells. Human lymphoid cultures ex vivo were infected for 7 days with the R5 strain 1/85 or 49-5, the R5X4 strain 7/86, the X4 strain NL4-3, or kept uninfected. Apoptosis in productively infected and uninfected CD4 T cells was determined by either annexin V staining (A and C) or caspase-3 activity (B). Intracellular p24 (A and B) or viral RNA (C) was used to determine viral infection. Error bars indicate standard errors of the means.
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FIG. 5. Bystander CD4 T cells undergo apoptosis when cocultured with X4 HIV-infected cells or upon exposure to cell-free supernatants from X4 HIV-infected cultures. (A) Schematic representation of the experimental setup. CD4 T cells were isolated from uninfected ex vivo human lymphoid cultures and labeled with CFSE. A total of 150,000 CFSE-labeled CD4-enriched cells (more than 90% CD4 T cells) were added to human lymphoid cultures ex vivo from the same donor, which had been infected for 6 days with the indicated HIV-1 strains. Cells were cultured in the presence or absence of the viral reverse transcriptase inhibitor AZT (5 µM) for 6 days longer. The medium was changed every 3 days, and AZT was readded to the respective cultures. (B) After 6 days of coculture, apoptosis in CFSE-positive CD4 T cells was determined by using annexin V staining. In parallel, infection of the CFSE-positive CD4 T cells was analyzed by intracellular p24 staining (inset). (C) Viral replication was monitored in the same cultures by assessing the p24 concentration in the culture supernatant at days 3, 6, 9, and 12 after infection by using an anti-p24 ELISA. AZT was added at days 6 and 9 to the indicated samples. Shown are the mean values (n = 3) with standard errors of the means from a representative experiment from among at least three experiments with different donor tissue. (D) Culture supernatants of human lymphoid cultures ex vivo infected with the R5 strain 49-5 or the X4 strain NL4-3 were collected at days 6 and 9, sterile filtered, and diluted 1:1 with fresh medium. The concentration of p24 in the diluted supernatants was determined by using an anti-p24 ELISA and adjusted to 45 ng/ml, and the supernatants were added to uninfected cultures of cells from the same donor. The cells were cultured for an additional 6 days in the presence or absence of 5 µM AZT, and apoptosis was determined by using annexin V staining. Shown are the mean values (n = 3) with standard errors of the means from a representative experiment from among two experiments with different donor tissue.
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In a similar experiment, we tested whether supernatants from R5 or X4 HIV-infected cultures that were transferred to uninfected parallel cultures can cause apoptosis in the uninfected cells. Six days of culture of uninfected cells in the presence of supernatant derived from cultures infected with the X4 virus NL4-3 resulted in increased apoptosis in these cells regardless of the presence or absence of AZT (Fig. 5D). In contrast, supernatant from cultures infected with the R5 virus 49-5 had no significant effect on the uninfected cells (Fig. 5D).
These results demonstrate that the unique ability of an X4 virus infection to induce widespread apoptosis in human lymphoid histoculture is not dependent on the productive infection of these CD4 T cells, since a reverse transcriptase inhibitor did not protect the majority of cells from undergoing apoptosis in this context despite potent inhibition of viral spread. Furthermore, the supernatant transfer experiment shows that direct contact of the bystander cells with the infected cells is not required for X4 HIV-induced bystander apoptosis.
Mechanism of bystander apoptosis by X4 HIV-1. We next sought to explore the mechanism of this X4-specific phenotype. The pronounced bystander apoptosis induced by X4 strains could not be attributed to general cytotoxicity due to a higher concentration of viral particles in X4 virus-infected cultures, since R5 and X4 viruses showed similar replication kinetics and peak p24 concentrations (Fig. 2C) (24, 29, 32, 41, 44). It was important to determine whether the low level of apoptosis detected within R5 virus infections in human lymphoid histocultures was entirely a reflection of the low frequency of CCR5+ CD4 T cells (24, 29, 32, 41, 44) or represented a failure of R5 virus infections to induce bystander apoptosis in CCR5+ T cells. We found that among CCR5+ T cells in R5-infected cultures, nearly all apoptotic cells were productively infected (p24 positive) (Fig. 6A). Consistent with this observation, no significant levels of apoptosis were found among CCR5- CD4 T cells following R5 virus infections (data not shown). In contrast, X4 virus infections caused widespread apoptosis in both the CCR5+ (Fig. 6A) and CCR5- (data not shown) subsets, predominantly in bystander CD4 T cells within each of these subsets. Collectively, these analyses revealed significant bystander killing by X4 viruses, while killing by R5 viruses was restricted to the infected subset of CCR5+ CD4 cells.
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FIG. 6. HIV-1-induced bystander apoptosis critically depends on the gp120-CXCR4 interaction. (A) Human lymphoid cultures ex vivo were infected for 7 days with the R5 strain 1/85 or 49-5, the R5X4 strain 7/86, or the X4 strain NL4-3 or were kept uninfected. Apoptosis among CCR5+ CD4 cells was determined by annexin V staining, and infection was monitored simultaneously by intracellular p24 staining. (B and C) Uninfected, CFSE-labeled, CD4-enriched cells were cocultured with human lymphoid cultures ex vivo infected for 6 days with the X4 HIV-1 strain NL4-3 (B) or LAI (C) in the presence of the CXCR4-specific inhibitor AMD3100, an anti-CXCR4 antibody, or an anti-CCR5 antibody (B) or an anti-gp120 antibody (C). After 6 days of coculture, apoptosis in CFSE-positive CD4 T cells was determined by using annexin V staining. Shown are the mean values (n = 3) with standard errors of the means from a representative experiment from among three experiments with different donor tissues.
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The present work sought to elucidate the significance of these alternative mechanisms in a relevant ex vivo human lymphoid culture system. In contrast to other experimental models, these cultures allow the analysis of apoptosis in a natural environment with preserved cytokine composition and cellular complexity and an unaltered cellular activation status. Furthermore, instead of studying apoptosis induced by recombinant proteins or the overexpression of single viral gene products, we measured cell death in the context of HIV-1 infections at a very low multiplicity of infection, thereby mimicking the natural infection process as closely as possible. We used two different versions of the ex vivo human lymphoid culture system: the original model first described by Margolis and coworkers (13, 19, 23, 24, 32, 41, 44), using tissue blocks, as well as a modified version of it developed by Goldsmith and coworkers (29, 32), using dispersed cultures, that allows more experimental flexibility. So far, we have not observed significant differences between these experimental models concerning viral replication and infection as well as depletion and apoptosis of CD4 T cells.
Key aspects of the present analysis of bystander apoptosis are the careful discrimination of productively infected and uninfected cells and the simultaneous assessment of markers of apoptosis on a single-cell basis. We found that X4 HIV-1 strains have a potent capacity to kill uninfected bystander CD4 T cells. Remarkably, bystander apoptosis made a much higher contribution to the depletion of CD4 T cells than did apoptosis of productively infected cells. Importantly, the reverse transcriptase inhibitor AZT, which exerted a profound antiviral effect, did not prevent the majority of CD4 T cells from undergoing apoptosis in the context of an X4 virus infection. This experiment shows that bystander cells, the infection of which is prevented by AZT, nonetheless undergo apoptosis upon exposure to viral envelope gp120 antigen (see below). Collectively, these findings support the notion that the majority of CD4 T cells undergoing apoptosis are true bystander cells that do not harbor HIV-1 DNA or newly synthesized viral proteins.
Interestingly, we found that the ability to trigger high levels of bystander apoptosis in human lymphoid tissue was a nearly exclusive characteristic of X4 and R5X4 viruses. In contrast, apoptosis induced by R5 strains was restricted largely to productively infected CCR5+ CD4 T cells. The relative inability of R5 strains to induce significant bystander killing may be one explanation for the fact that CD4 T-cell depletion is modest in most HIV-1-infected individuals during the early phase of infection, when R5 strains predominate. Furthermore, this finding provides a causal mechanism that may underlie the temporal association between the emergence of X4 strains and markedly increased depletion of CD4 T cells in vivo.
Mechanistically, based upon several lines of experimental evidence, bystander apoptosis in ex vivo human cultures appeared to be dependent on the interaction of viral gp120 with CD4 and CXCR4. First, bystander apoptosis was not detected in CXCR4-expressing CD8 T or B cells, suggesting that expression of CD4 on the target cell is a prerequisite. Second, bystander killing in CD4 T cells was completely prevented by the addition of the CXCR4 inhibitor AMD3100 or an anti-CXCR4 monoclonal antibody, both of which do not interfere with the engagement of gp120 with CD4. Thus, signaling through CD4 alone is not sufficient, but interaction with CXCR4 is required for the induction of bystander apoptosis. Third, an anti-gp120 monoclonal antibody eliminated the induction of apoptosis by an X4 virus, demonstrating that the binding of CXCR4 to gp120, rather than its natural ligand stromal cell-derived factor-1
or another, unknown cellular factor, triggered apoptosis in CD4 T cells. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that further cellular or viral factors either are required or have an enhancing effect on X4 HIV-1-induced bystander apoptosis, although gp120 is necessary and appears to underlie the restriction to CXCR4+ CD4 T cells. The supernatant transfer experiment in Fig. 5D showed that apoptosis of bystander CD4 T cells does not require direct contact between infected cells and the uninfected bystander cells that subsequently undergo apoptosis. Further experiments will be needed to clarify whether the conformation of gp120 (e.g., soluble or virion bound) plays a role in triggering bystander killing. We can exclude with certainty that free, unintegrated HIV-1 cDNAs were responsible for induction of apoptosis (36) in bystander CD4 T cells, since the viral replication cycle could not progress beyond reverse transcription in the presence of AZT.
In principle, the cellular source of a virus could influence its capacity to induce bystander apoptosis. R5 viruses can replicate in CCR5-expressing CD4 T cells as well as in macrophages, whereas the X4 strains used in this study replicate exclusively in CD4 T cells. We have previously demonstrated that in ex vivo human lymphoid cultures approximately 50% of the viral output of R5 viruses originates from CD4 T cells (13). Thus, the complete absence of bystander apoptosis by R5 viruses cannot be accounted for by a lack of CD4 T-cell-derived R5 virus. Also, as shown in Fig. 3B and C, the numbers of productively infected CD4 T cells did not vary significantly between R5 and X4 virus infections.
In summary, these studies demonstrate the significant contribution of HIV-1-induced bystander killing to the overall cytopathicity of X4 HIV-1 strains. Our key experimental observation of HIV-1-induced bystander apoptosis is consistent with earlier observations made in clinical specimens from AIDS patients (8, 15). We further demonstrate that bystander apoptosis is an almost exclusive characteristic of X4 HIV-1 strains and is mediated by the binding of X4 Env to CXCR4 on CD4 T cells. These results clarify that X4 strains exert a profound cytopathic effect on a much wider range of target cells via their particular capacity to induce bystander apoptosis. This combination of direct, infection-dependent T-cell killing during the early, R5 HIV-1-dominated stages of infection and broad, indirect T-cell destruction during late, often X4 HIV-1-dominated stages of infection provides an important paradigm for the natural history of HIV-1 disease. Furthermore, based on these concepts, it is plausible that inhibition of bystander killing by CXCR4-specific compounds would have a protective effect on CD4 T-cell depletion beyond their immediate effects on viral spread and systemic viral load and thereby significantly delay disease progression.
This work was supported by NIH grants (CA86814 and AI43695) to M.A.G. and by the J. David Gladstone Institutes.
Present address: Department of Virology, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. ![]()
Present address: Genencor International, Inc., Palo Alto, CA 94304. ![]()
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