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Journal of Virology, April 2005, p. 4514-4518, Vol. 79, No. 7
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.7.4514-4518.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Jeffrey J. Bajramovic,2,
Urs Schneider,3
Sandra Ufano,4
Sylvie Pochet,5 and
Daniel Gonzalez-Dunia1,2*
INSERM U563, CPTP, Toulouse,1 Unité des Virus Lents, CNRS URA 1930, Département de Virologie,2 Unité de Chimie Organique, CNRS URA 2128, Département de Biologie Structurale et Chimie, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France,5 Department of Virology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany,3 Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia (CSIC), Madrid, Spain4
Received 4 October 2004/ Accepted 19 October 2004
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BDV persists in the central nervous systems of infected animals, causing a broad range of neurological symptoms (13, 22, 27). The infection was initially described in horses and sheep as a nonpurulent, often fatal meningoencephalomyelitis (13, 22, 27). Infection can also become chronic, leading to persistent behavioral abnormalities (22, 27). Although most cases described have occurred in Central Europe, BDV seems to have a worldwide distribution (22). Recent data indicate that the natural host range of BDV is much broader than previously thought (22, 31). There is clear evidence that BDV can infect humans, although controversy still remains about the epidemiology and clinical consequences of human BDV infection (19, 26).
The importance of BDV in veterinary medicine and its possible implication as a human pathogen has stimulated many groups to search for a treatment for BDV infections. Amantadine was reported to have an effect against BDV (4), but other studies failed to confirm this result (8, 17, 32). Differences in susceptibility to amantadine may be related to the viral strain used, and thus the efficacy of amantadine awaits confirmation from more-comprehensive studies (5). The broad-spectrum antiviral ribonucleotide analog ribavirin proved to have an effect on BDV in vitro, decreasing both viral particle production and viral RNA levels (20, 23). However, the activity of ribavirin was modest, and the clinical benefits found in an in vivo trial turned out to be due to an indirect effect of ribavirin on the proliferation of microglial cells (30). Recently, we reported that the nucleoside analog 1-ß-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (Ara-C) possesses potent activity against BDV both in vitro and in vivo (1).
Our findings demonstrating an effect of Ara-C against BDV were unexpected, because Ara-C is a well-known specific inhibitor of viral and cellular DNA polymerases (14). It was surprising to find that it could inhibit BDV, a negative-stranded RNA virus that synthesizes only RNA. In addition, the effect against BDV could not be attributed to any known effect of Ara-C on the host cell (1). Therefore, we sought to elucidate the mechanism of action of Ara-C on BDV.
In order to test the inhibitory actions of various compounds, we used two previously described methods, allowing the assessment of BDV inhibition under different experimental conditions. The first method consists of analysis of the subcellular localization of BDV nucleoprotein (N) by immunofluorescence (Fig. 1). In persistently infected Vero cells (Vero-BV cells), BDV N is present both in the nucleus and in the cytoplasm. We showed previously that inhibition of BDV by Ara-C is accompanied by a nuclear relocalization of BDV N (1). This shift in the subcellular localization of BDV N correlates well with inhibition of BDV, and we therefore used this qualitative approach as a first criterion to determine the antiviral activities of the different compounds. The second method (1) is based on the analysis of virus spread between infected and noninfected Vero cells by using flow cytometry (fluorescence-activated cell sorting [FACS]). BDV is tightly cell associated (15), and efficient transmission requires close cell-to-cell contact. Virus titers in the supernatants of persistently infected cells are extremely low. Thus, the cell spread assay appears more relevant to the biology of BDV, and we have shown that it is better suited for quantitating viral inhibition, allowing a better comparison of BDV inhibition following different treatments (Fig. 1; Table 1). For both types of experiments, treatment was carried out daily at the indicated doses for a period of 5 days.
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FIG. 1. Representative examples of the inhibitory effects of compounds used in this study. (Top panels) Analysis by immunofluorescence of the subcellular localization of the BDV nucleocapsid protein (N) following treatment with different compounds. Vero-BV cells were treated for 5 days with the different compounds and stained with a rabbit anti-N polyclonal antibody, followed by a fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated anti-rabbit antibody. Of all compounds tested (only examples are shown here), only Ara-C resulted in nuclear retention of BDV N protein. Magnification, x120 (original magnification, x200). (Bottom panels) FACS analysis of BDV cell-to-cell spread. Confluent Vero cells were labeled with 5- (and 6-)carboxyfluorescein diacetate (CFDA) and were subsequently cocultivated for 5 days at a ratio of 1:1 with unlabeled Vero-BV cells. Cocultivation took place under daily treatment with 4 µM Ara-C or with various drugs (e.g., 50 µM Ara-A). Thereafter, cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. The percentage of viral dissemination during the cocultivation period was calculated as indicated in Table 1 and is shown in each case. Note that inhibition of BDV cell-to-cell spread is specific to Ara-C. The negative control consisted of a 1:1 mixture of CFDA-labeled Vero cells with Vero-BV cells, which were fixed directly after mixing.
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TABLE 1. Results of FACS analysis of BDV cell-to-cell spread assays following treatment with different compounds
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To exert their antiviral effects, most nucleoside analogs must be phosphorylated. Thus, we investigated whether this requirement also applied to the inhibition of BDV by Ara-C. For this purpose, we synthesized a modified Ara-C, 5'-deoxy-1-ß-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (5'-deoxy-Ara-C) (18), that cannot be phosphorylated because of the absence of a 5' hydroxyl group. Treatment of cells with 5'-deoxy-Ara-C had no effect on the localization of BDV N (data not shown) and did not inhibit viral spread (Table 1). These results demonstrate that Ara-C must be phosphorylated in order to inhibit BDV.
We then wondered if the antiviral effect of Ara-C could be reversed by adding cytidine (C). In cells treated with 4 µM Ara-C together with an excess of C (20 µM), BDV N was detected by immunofluorescence in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm (Fig. 1). In addition, FACS analysis showed a partial recovery of virus spread (Fig. 1 and Table 1). The cytotoxic effect of Ara-C was still visible when cytidine was added simultaneously, indicating that Ara-C could still be phosphorylated into Ara-CTP. These data suggest that cytidine is able to specifically reverse the antiviral effect of Ara-C and that the reversion involves competition between Ara-CTP and CTP, possibly at the level of the viral RNA polymerase. Since the cytotoxic effects of Ara-C were still clearly apparent, it is unlikely that the partial reversion mediated by simultaneous addition of C is a consequence of reversion of the genotoxic effects of Ara-C mediated by C. In addition, to make sure that the reversion seen when C was added was not a consequence of the transformation of CDP into dCDP by ribonucleotide diphosphate reductase (Fig. 2), we blocked this enzyme with hydroxyurea, a specific inhibitor (3). However, reversion of the antiviral effect of Ara-C still occurred when cytidine was added together with hydroxyurea (data not shown), confirming that reversion of the anti-BDV effect of Ara-C is indeed due to cytidine. Interestingly, reversion of both the antiviral and the cytotoxic effect of Ara-C occurred when cells were treated simultaneously with Ara-C (4 µM) and 2'-deoxycytidine (dC) (20 µM). This suggests that, in the case of dC, the reversion of the antiviral effect occurs at the initial step of Ara-C phosphorylation, probably by competition between Ara-C and dC for deoxycytidine kinase (Fig. 2), the enzyme catalyzing the rate-limiting step in the phosphorylation of Ara-C (3).
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FIG. 2. Metabolic phosphorylation pathways of cytidine and its derivatives. The mode of action of hydroxyurea is shown.
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FIG. 3. Dose-dependent, inhibitory effect of Ara-C in the BDV minireplicon assay. Analysis of reporter gene expression by a CAT ELISA. BSR-T7 cells (treated or not with the different compounds) were transfected with the minigenome construct together with optimal quantities of the expression plasmids for the BDV L, N, and P proteins. In the negative control (), the plasmid encoding BDV L was replaced by the same amount of a plasmid encoding green fluorescent protein. The positive control (+) consisted of untreated cells and was set at 100% in each experiment. For an internal control for transfection efficiency, a plasmid encoding Renilla luciferase under the control of a polymerase II promoter was cotransfected. Seventy-two hours after transfection, the cells were lysed and analyzed for CAT protein and luciferase levels. CAT values were normalized for transfection efficiency and are expressed for each sample as the percentage of the value with the untreated control. Data shown are means (± standard deviations) for three independent experiments.
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This possible sensitivity of the BDV polymerase complex to Ara-C raises interesting questions about the substrate selectivity of the BDV polymerase (L) and led us to suggest possible explanations, which are set forth below. Sequence comparisons between various RNA polymerases, including those of Mononegavirales (L family), have been reported. Four conserved motifs, designated A, B, C, and D, have been described and are also conserved within all RNA-dependent polymerases of eukaryotes. These motifs define a "polymerase module," and two of them are also present in monomeric DNA-dependent polymerases (11, 28). The crystal structure of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of hepatitis C virus has revealed that motif A is implicated in the binding of the incoming nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) (6). This motif A contains an invariant aspartate residue, present in all RNA polymerases, as well as an invariant lysine residue found in motif A of the polymerases of all NNS RNA viruses. Site-directed mutagenesis studies performed on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase have shown that mutation of the invariant aspartate residue completely destroys polymerase activity (21). For BDV L, this aspartate residue is also conserved. However, in BDV L, a serine residue is found in place of the invariant lysine residue present for all other negative-stranded RNA viruses (10). Thus, it is possible that this change might modify the selectivity of BDV L to nucleoside analogs and in particular to Ara-C. This provides a working hypothesis to explain why BDV is the only NNS RNA virus shown to date to be sensitive to Ara-C. Now that it is becoming possible to test the effect of mutations of the BDV polymerase complex by using the minigenome assay, it will be of interest in the future to assess the effects of mutations in BDV L, in particular in domain A, implicated in NTP selection and binding, on its sensitivity to Ara-C.
Given the importance of BDV in veterinary medicine and its possible involvement in the etiology of human behavioral diseases, the development of effective therapy against this infectious agent is needed. Despite its efficacy in vitro and in vivo, the toxicity of Ara-C poses an obstacle to its therapeutic use. Searching for a less toxic antiviral agent, we recently showed that the nucleoside analog 2'-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine (2'-FdC), structurally close to Ara-C, is an attractive candidate (2). A better understanding of the mechanism of action of these nucleoside analogs on the BDV replication complex, such as that shown in this study, will contribute to the development of new therapeutic molecules aimed at the efficient control of BDV infections.
This work was supported by the INSERM Avenir program and by grants from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS. R.V. is a recipient of a doctoral fellowship from the Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de l'Enseignement Supérieur. J.J.B. is a recipient of a Marie Curie fellowship from the European Community program "Improving Human Research Potential and the Socio-economic Knowledge Base" (contract HPMF-CT-2000-01088).
R.V. and J.J.B. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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