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Journal of Virology, September 2004, p. 10197-10201, Vol. 78, No. 18
0022-538X/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.18.10197-10201.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
A Naturally Occurring Variation in the Proline-Rich Region Does Not Attenuate Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Nef Function
Elke Rücker,1 Jan Münch,1 Steffen Wildum,1 Matthias Brenner,1 Jutta Eisemann,2 Leonid Margolis,3 and Frank Kirchhoff1*
Department of VirologyUniversitätsklinikum, Ulm,1
Department of Dermatology, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany,2
Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland3
Received 9 January 2004/
Accepted 6 May 2004

ABSTRACT
We analyzed human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Nef
variants to further evaluate the functional relevance of the
R71T substitution previously proposed to attenuate viral replication
(Fackler et al., Curr. Biol. 11:1294-1299, 2001). Our results
demonstrate that this variation in the proline-rich region does
not significantly affect the functional activity of Nef or HIV-1
infectivity or replication.

TEXT
The human immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1)
nef gene is an important
pathogenesis factor. Among other functions, Nef enhances viral
replication and down-modulates cell surface expression of CD4,
the primary receptor of HIV-1 (
5,
8,
17,
25,
26). Both Nef activities
correlate significantly (
10,
12,
16) and might be mechanistically
linked, because reduced surface levels of CD4 promote virion
release, enhance Env incorporation, and might prevent viral
superinfection (
2,
3,
15,
21). However, the relevance of Nef-mediated
CD4 down-regulation for the enhanced replicative capacity of
HIV-1 remains controversial (
6,
22). Recently, it has been proposed
that a naturally occurring R71T substitution in the otherwise
well-conserved proline-rich motif (P
69xR/T
71PxxPxxPxRP
78) impairs
the ability of Nef to enhance HIV-1 replication without having
an effect on CD4 down-modulation (
7). We were surprised by this
finding, because, e.g., the HIV-1 NL4-3 Nef containing a T at
position 71 is commonly used as a positive control for the ability
of Nef to stimulate viral replication. Furthermore, the R71T
variation in Nef apparently does not prevent efficient viral
replication and AIDS progression in vivo because it is found
in both asymptomatic and immunodeficient HIV-1-infected individuals
(
13).
To further investigate the functional relevance of the R71T variation we generated five pairs of Nef variants. T71 was changed to R in the NL4-3, 012wm-93(1) and 167rw-95(1) Nefs; the reciprocal R71T change was introduced into the 001gh-93(1) and 057dr-94(1) Nefs. Two (001gh and 012wm) of the four primary nef alleles were derived from nonprogressors, and two (057dr and 167rw) were from AIDS patients (13). The original Nef sequences can be retrieved from GenBank with accession numbers AAB60579, AF129333, AF129340, AF129356, AF129381 and AF129385. Substitutions were introduced by PCR using mutagenic internal oligonucleotides essentially as described elsewhere (12). Sequence analysis confirmed that all constructs differed only by the predicted R71T change or vice versa in the PxxP motif. First, all 10 nef alleles were inserted into a bicistronic vector coexpressing Nef and green fluorescent protein (GFP) (11) to compare the ability of R71- and T7-Nefs to modulate the cell surface expression of various human receptor molecules (8, 23, 24, 27, 28). Quantitative fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis was performed as described previously (4, 23) and revealed that both groups of Nef proteins modulated cell surface expression of CD4, CD28, major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) and MHC-II, and the MHC-II-associated invariant chain (Ii) with similar efficiency levels (Fig. 1).
To assess the effect of the R71T variation on viral infectivity
and replication we generated R71- and T7-Nef variants of the
proviral CXCR4-tropic HIV-1 NL4-3 molecular clone (
1) and a
CCR5-tropic derivative of NL4-3 containing the 005pf135 V3 loop
region (
18). R5-tropic NL4-3 clones expressing the 012NP R71
Nef contained undesired point mutations and were excluded from
the analysis. All other constructs differed exclusively by the
predicted R71T variation in their
nef sequences. Virus stocks
of X4- and R5-tropic HIV-1 NL4-3 T71 and R71 Nef variants were
generated by transient transfection of 293T cells and used to
infect P4-CCR5 indicator cells expressing both CCR5 and CXCR4
as described previously (
18). The results demonstrated that
the R71T variation did not significantly affect the ability
of Nef to enhance virion infectivity independently of the viral
coreceptor tropism (Fig.
2A and B). Similarly, R71- and T7-Nefs
enhanced viral replication of both X4- and R5-tropic HIV-1 NL4-3
variants in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with indistinguishable
efficiency characteristics (Fig.
2C and D and data not shown).
An attenuating effect of T71 in Nef on HIV-1 replication has
been previously shown in cocultures of immature dendritic cells
(imDCs) and PBMC (
7). Therefore, we next investigated the effect
of the R71T variation on HIV-1 replication in imDC/PBMC cocultures.
DCs were generated essentially as described previously (
14).
Briefly, PBMC were isolated from leukapheresis preparations
by density gradient separation using Lymphoprep (Nycomed Pharma
AS, Oslo, Norway). Cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 (BioWhittaker,
Verviers, Belgium)-1% glutamine (Sigma-Aldrich, Deisenhofen,
Germany)-1% penicillin-streptomycin (Sigma-Aldrich)-1% HEPES
(
N-2-hydroexyethylpiperazine-
N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid) (Gibco
BRL, Karlsruhe, Germany)-1% heat-inactivated (56°C, 30 min)
human plasma. After 1 h of incubation the nonadherent cell fraction
was removed and the adherent cells were further incubated for
24 h. Afterwards, cells were fed with granulocyte-macrophage
colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (Amgen GmbH, Munich, Germany)
(800 U/ml) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) (Strathmann, Hamburg, Germany)
(500 U/ml) and incubated for a further 48 h. Then, cells were
fed again with GM-CSF (400 U/ml) and IL-4 (500 U/ml) and incubated
for further 48 h. On day 5 the cells were immature dendritic
cells. They were collected and counted, and a part was used
for experiments. The remaining cells were treated with a maturation
cocktail composed of GM-CSF (40 U/ml), IL-4 (200 U/ml), IL-1ß
(Sigma-Aldrich) (1 ng/ml), prostaglandin E
2 (Cayman Chemicals,
Ann Arbor, Mich.) (0.5 µg/ml), and tumor necrosis factor
(Boehringer Ingelheim, Vienna, Austria) (1.25 ng/ml). FACS analysis
revealed that mature DCs (maDCs) showed increased expression
of CD80, CD83, CD86, and MHC-II and reduced expression of CD14
compared to imDCs (data not shown). Our results demonstrated
that all matching pairs of R71- and T7-Nefs did not differ significantly
in their abilities to enhance HIV-1 replication in cocultures
of imDCs with nonactivated autologous PBMC (Fig.
3A). On average,
both groups of
nef alleles were equally efficient in this assay
(Fig.
3B). In comparison, cultures of maDCs and imDCs alone
or of unstimulated PBMC did not yield significant levels of
HIV-1 replication (data not shown).
Nef also increases HIV-1 replication in ex vivo human lymphoid
tissue (HLT) (
9). This experimental system is of high physiological
relevance, because HLT maintains its original complexity of
cell populations and cytoarchitecture and does not require exogenous
activation to support productive HIV infection and viral spread.
As expected, NL4-3
nef-open virus replicated more efficiently
than the
nef-defective form (
nef*) (Fig.
4A). The R71T variation
in Nef, however, did not significantly affect virus production.
Furthermore, the frequencies of p24-positive HIV-1-infected
cells did not differ significantly between HLT infected with
R71- and T7-Nef variants (Fig.
4B). CD4
+ T-cell depletion in
HLT correlates with the efficiency of viral replication (
10).
Concordant with this, we found that the CD4
+/CD8
+ T-cell ratio
was high in uninfected tissues and only moderately reduced in
HLT infected with the
nef-defective HIV-1 variant (Fig.
4C).
In contrast, all HIV-1 R71- and T7-Nef variants resulted in
a strong decline in the CD4
+/CD8
+ T-cell ratio. Our observation
that the R71T Nef variation does not impair the ability of HIV-1
to replicate efficiently and to cause CD4
+ T-cell depletion
in HLT is consistent with its presence in some AIDS patients
with high viral loads and low CD4
+ T-cell counts (
13).
Our results demonstrate that the R71T variation has no significant
effect on the functional activity of primary Nef proteins. Furthermore,
the matching R71- and T71-Nefs showed only modest or no appreciable
differences in their capacities to interact with PAK2 (
20) (K.
Saksela and G. H. Renkema, personal communication). In contrast,
a previous report suggested that the R71T conversion alters
the ability of Nef to bind cellular partners, impairs its activity
in enhancing HIV-1 replication, and might help the virus to
establish a latent reservoir (
7). The effects of the R71T variation
could be context dependent, and this change might attenuate
the function of some
nef alleles, such as SF2 (
7). To evaluate
this possibility we generated SF2-Nefs containing the corresponding
R75T variation. We found that the R75- and T75-SF2-Nefs modulate
the cell surface expression of various human receptors with
undistinguishable efficiency (data not shown). More importantly,
however, the R75T variation consistently did not reduce the
functional activity of the SF2-Nef in enhancing virion infectivity
or in stimulating HIV-1 replication in PBMC, imDCs-PBMC cocultures,
and ex vivo infected HLT (Fig.
5).
In summary, our results clearly argue against a relevant role
of the R71T or R75T variation for Nef function or for viral
pathogenesis, respectively, in HIV-1-infected individuals. We
could not confirm that this change separates the ability of
Nef to down-modulate CD4 and to stimulate viral replication.
Most likely both CD4 down-modulation and cellular activation
contribute to the accelerated replication of HIV-1 variants
expressing functional Nef. For example, it has been shown that
the HIV-1 Nef intersects the macrophage CD40L signaling pathway
to promote resting-cell infection (
29). The relative contributions
of both CD4 down-modulation and effects on cellular signaling
pathways for viral spread in primary human cells need further
investigation. Furthermore, it will be of interest to determine
whether other naturally occurring sequence variations in Nef
might affect these activities.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank N. Bailer and S. Aftring for excellent technical assistance,
T. Mertens for constant encouragement, and I. Bennett for critical
reading.
We thank the Wilhelm-Sander Foundation and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for financial support.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of VirologyUniversitätsklinikum, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany. Phone: 49-731-50023344. Fax: 49-731-50023337.
frank.kirchhoff{at}medizin.uni-ulm.de.


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Journal of Virology, September 2004, p. 10197-10201, Vol. 78, No. 18
0022-538X/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.78.18.10197-10201.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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