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Journal of Virology, January 2006, p. 1047-1052, Vol. 80, No. 2
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.80.2.1047-1052.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Jennifer C. Learmont,2
John S. Sullivan,2,3
Steven L. Wesselingh,1,4
Ian R. C. Cooke,1
Nicholas J. Deacon,1,
and
Paul R. Gorry1,4*
The Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,1 Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,3 Department of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia4
Received 13 October 2005/ Accepted 25 October 2005
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The largest described cohort of long-term survivors is the Sydney Blood Bank Cohort (SBBC), which consists of multiple individuals who became infected with an attenuated strain of HIV-1 via contaminated blood products from a common blood donor between 1981 and 1984 (6, 16, 17). Viral attenuation has been attributed to gross deletions in the nef/long terminal repeat (LTR) region of the HIV-1 genome (6). Despite being infected from a single source, SBBC members comprise slow progressors (SP) and long-term nonprogressors (LTNP) (2, 4, 17). The SBBC therefore provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the pathogenesis of nef/LTR-deleted HIV-1 infection in a naturally occurring human setting.
Subjects. We undertook a longitudinal study of SBBC SP and LTNP. The clinical history of the study subjects from infection to 1998 has been described (17). Subjects C54, C98, C49, C64, and C135 were referred to previously as recipients 13, 7, 12, 9, and 4, respectively (17). Subjects C54 and C98 have since died from causes unrelated to HIV-1 infection. An update on the results of laboratory studies and clinical history of these two subjects and of the surviving SBBC members studied in this report is summarized in Table 1 and detailed below.
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TABLE 1. Subjects, laboratory studies, and clinical history
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Nonprogressing SBBC subjects include transfusion recipients C49, C54, C64, and C135; these subjects have experienced steady CD4+ T-cell counts since infection was first identified, with median values of >900, >1,000, >900, and > 500 cells/µl, respectively. HIV-1 RNA levels have remained consistently low or below detectable levels in these subjects despite being infected for up to 20 years without antiretroviral intervention. Patient C54 died aged 73 from a myocardial infarct in September 2001. C135 was not included in the present study because of the lack of consistent amplification of HIV-1 DNA.
Methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained at each of the times indicated in Table 1 according to guidelines endorsed by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service human ethics committee. The nef/LTR region of the HIV-1 genome was amplified from PBMC by nested PCR, as described previously (4, 20). The products of six independent PCRs were pooled and cloned into pGEM-T-Easy (Promega, Madison, WI), and the nucleotide sequences of multiple independent clones were determined using a SequiTherm EXCEL II DNA sequencing kit (Epicenter Technologies, Madison, WI) and a model 4000L LI-COR DNA sequencer (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE). Nucleotide sequences were aligned and analyzed using DNAMAN software (Lynnon, Quebec, Canada).
Results.
Intersubject nef/LTR sequences cloned from the earliest available PBMC samples were heterogenous but contained a number of common mutations (Fig. 1A): (i) deletions of various lengths in the amino terminus of the nef gene, (ii) at least one deletion in the nef/LTR overlap region, and (iii) duplication and/or rearrangement of nuclear factor-
B (NF-
B) and specificity factor 1 (Sp-1) binding sites in the LTR (Fig. 1B). The 3'-most deletion in the nef/LTR overlap region shared by all viruses is thought to have been present in the transmitted virus, as none of the subjects has antibodies to a peptide of the corresponding region in the Nef protein (9). None of the viruses are capable of encoding Nef, carrying either an in-phase termination codon (D36) or lacking the nef ATG. The duplicated or rearranged region of the LTR was unique to each of the cohort members and varied with respect to the number and arrangement of NF-
B and Sp-1 sites inserted (Fig. 1). Thus, despite the common origin of the viruses, the nef/LTR regions differed from subject to subject.
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FIG. 1. Analysis of SBBC nef/LTR sequence. (A) Schematic representation of nef/LTR sequence deletions of HIV-1 cloned from the earliest available PBMC samples. The data shown represent a consensus of at least 20 independent nef/LTR sequences cloned from each PBMC sample. The genomic structures are compared to wild-type HIV-1 (NL4-3). Numbers refer to nucleotide positions in NL4-3. Black blocks represent intact sequence, and gaps represent deletions. Gray blocks represent the sequence area containing duplicated and rearranged NF- B and Sp-1 binding sites in the LTR. The dates shown represent the times when PBMC were collected for analysis. (B) More-detailed analysis of the LTR, depicting transcription factor binding sites. PPT, polypurine tract; NRE, negative regulatory element.
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B/Sp-1 motif. The pattern of nef sequence loss in C98 was remarkably similar to that which occurred in D36. The pattern of nef sequence loss in C54 was also similar but was less extensive than that observed in D36 and C98. However, the additional loss of nef sequence in C64 was comparatively minimal. Thus, viruses harbored by D36, C54, C98, and C64 appear to be evolving in a convergent fashion toward a highly deleted, minimal nef/LTR structure containing only sequence elements that are absolutely essential for HIV-1 replication. The convergent nature of the nef/LTR evolution is further illustrated in Fig. 3, where sequences from the earliest and most recent nef/LTR clones from each subject are compared. The convergent nature of the nef/LTR sequence changes implies the presence of strong selection pressures that maintain the ability of defective HIV-1 genomes to persist in vivo.
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FIG. 2. Evolution of SBBC nef/LTR sequence deletions. Schematic representation of nef/LTR sequence deletions of HIV-1 cloned from longitudinally collected PBMC samples from SBBC long-term nonprogressors (A) and slow progressors (B). The data shown represent a consensus of at least 20 independent nef/LTR sequences cloned from each PBMC sample. The genomic structures are compared to wild-type HIV-1 (NL4-3). Numbers refer to nucleotide positions in NL4-3. Black blocks represent intact sequence, and gaps represent deletions. Gray blocks represent the sequence area containing duplicated and rearranged NF- B and Sp-1 binding sites in the LTR. The dates shown represent the times when PBMC were collected for analysis. PPT, polypurine tract; NRE, negative regulatory element.
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FIG. 3. Convergent evolution of SBBC nef/LTR sequences to a minimal nef/LTR structure. Comparisons of the genomic structures of nef/LTR sequences cloned from the earliest available and most recently obtained PBMC samples are shown. The genomic structures are compared to those of wild-type HIV-1 (NL4-3). Numbers refer to nucleotide positions in NL4-3. Black blocks represent intact sequence, and gaps represent deletions. Gray blocks represent the sequence area containing duplicated and rearranged NF- B and Sp-1 binding sites in the LTR. The dates shown represent the times when PBMC were collected for analysis. PPT, polypurine tract; NRE, negative regulatory element.
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Discussion. In this study, we demonstrated a progressive loss of nef/LTR sequence in an epidemiologically-linked cohort of long-term survivors who have been infected with attenuated HIV-1 for up to 25 years. The intersubject evolution of nef/LTR sequence loss appears convergent, tending toward retention of only those sequence elements that are absolutely required for HIV-1 replication. The highly evolved, minimal nef/LTR structure appears stable, being present as the dominant strain in C49 for at least 10 years. Its persistence in this subject, who has consistently had a below-detectable viral load in the absence of HAART (Table 1), initially suggested that evolution to the minimal nef/LTR sequence may result in a further-attenuated, even less-pathogenic virus. However, we found no association between evolution toward the minimal nef/LTR sequence and the clinical status of the subject. For example, both progressing (D36, C98) and nonprogressing (C54, C49) subjects harbored highly evolved forms of nef/LTR, and a nonprogressing subject (C64) harbored a significantly less evolved nef/LTR. Thus, other viral and/or host factors are likely to contribute to modulating the in vivo pathogenicity of HIV-1 strains with nef/LTR deleted.
Reversion to pathogenicity by SIV with nef deleted has been associated with restoration of a truncated Nef protein (21), acquisition of further deletions in the nef/LTR overlap region (1), and/or duplications of NF-
B binding sites in the LTR (1). In contrast to the SIV studies, the in vivo evolution of HIV-1 with nef/LTR was unidirectional toward a smaller nef/LTR sequence and the majority of the additional sequence loss was within the nef-alone region. Furthermore, none of the clones were capable of encoding Nef. In addition, the presence of duplicated NF-
B binding sites in the LTR was not associated with the clinical status of the SBBC subjects. Therefore, it is likely that any viral factors that modulate the in vivo pathogenicity of HIV-1 with nef/LTR deleted will be distinct from those in SIV with nef deleted. Interestingly, the unidirectional evolution toward the minimal nef/LTR sequence observed in SBBC members is strikingly similar to the pattern of evolution in a slow progressor infected with a nef/LTR deletion variant of HIV-1 circulating recombinant form 01_AE (15). The convergent pattern of nef/LTR evolution among viruses harbored by SBBC members is therefore unlikely to be due to a unique property of the infecting strain but rather likely reflects an intrinsic instability of HIV-1 with nef/LTR defects that is common across clades.
The molecular mechanisms underlying the increased or acquired pathogenicity of nef/LTR-deleted HIV-1 harbored by slow progressors D36 and C98 remain to be determined, but possibilities include changes in LTR or Env function that may contribute to increasing replicative capacity or cytopathicity, respectively. In support of this hypothesis, enhanced transcriptional activity of LTR clones isolated from CSF of D36 was shown to contribute to high CSF HIV-1 RNA levels and the development of HIV-associated dementia (4). Moreover, enhanced coreceptor usage by HIV-1 isolated from D36 when CD4+ cell counts fell below 200/µl contributed to enhanced cell killing in ex vivo human tissue cultures (12). Further studies on the function of sequential LTR and Env clones from SBBC subjects are in progress to elucidate their role in the pathogenesis of nef/LTR-deleted HIV-1 infection.
In conclusion, while our studies affirm that nef is important for HIV-1 pathogenesis, convergent evolution of HIV-1 in vivo toward a minimal and apparently stable nef/LTR structure via extensive loss of nef sequence was not associated with HIV-1 progression. Factors other than nef sequence therefore contribute significantly to HIV-1 progression in the SBBC of long-term survivors.
Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. The nef/LTR nucleotide sequences reported here have been assigned GenBank accession numbers DQ287272 to DQ287311.
This study was supported by grants from the Australian National Center for HIV Virology Research to M.J.C. and N.J.D. and grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (251520) and National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (1-R21-AI054207-01-A1) to P.R.G. P.R.G. is a recipient of an NHMRC R. Douglas Wright Biomedical Career Development Award.
Present address: Avexa Ltd., Richmond, Victoria, Australia. ![]()
Present address: Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Churchill, Victoria, Australia. ![]()
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nef is manifest in cultures of immature dendritic cells and T cells. J. Virol. 74:2406-2413.
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