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Journal of Virology, November 2006, p. 11385-11392, Vol. 80, No. 22
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00439-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Immunology, Pirbright Laboratory, Institute for Animal Health, Ash Road, Woking GU24 0NF,1 Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT,2 Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9QG, United Kingdom3
Received 2 March 2006/ Accepted 28 August 2006
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African swine
fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus that replicates
primarily in cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system of swine. Unlike
the other DNA viruses, ASFV appears to lack a large complement of
immunoregulatory proteins that are targeted to the secretory pathway to
subvert specific components of the host immune response
(40). The principal
exception to this is the product of the EP402R gene, which is a viral
homologue of CD2 and, in conjunction with the product of the EP135R
gene, recruits erythrocytes to infected cells. This may sterically mask
virally infected cells from cytotoxic white blood cells
(5,
12,
33). ASFV also encodes an
inhibitor of nuclear factor
B (NF-
B) and nuclear
factor of activated T cells, which can repress proinflammatory immune
responses (25,
29,
36). Interestingly, ASFV
may alter host responses to the virus by targeting the secretory
pathway itself, rather than specific immunomodulatory proteins secreted
by cells. Our previous work
(23) has shown that ASFV
causes disruption of the trans-Golgi network (TGN), and this
is characterized by the loss of TGN46, an integral membrane protein
involved in maintaining the morphology of the TGN
(4), and AP1, an adaptor
protein important for the correct sorting of secretory cargo leaving
the TGN. If disruption of the TGN causes slowing or cessation of
protein trafficking to the cell surface, this could be a major benefit
in immune evasion by selective targeting of MHC class I molecules, as
well as significantly altering the host's immune response by reducing
secretion by macrophages, which are ASFV's principal target of
infection.
To further characterize the effect of ASFV infection on the TGN, we followed the distribution of golgin p230, a peripheral protein that localizes to the organelle. Figure 1A to C show that p230 was redistributed from the compact juxtanuclear Golgi pattern seen in uninfected cells to a punctate stain concentrated around the viral factory in infected cells. In a similar experiment, the results for infected cells labeled with anti-TGN46 (Fig. 1D to F) confirmed that infection with ASFV led to the loss of the immunofluorescence staining pattern for TGN46. We have shown previously that TGN46 first starts to disappear approximately 10 h postinfection (hpi) (23), and we were therefore interested to determine the effect of ASFV on the two markers relative to each other as infection progressed. At 10 hpi, both markers were present in infected cells (Fig. 1G to J), but in contrast to uninfected cells, TGN46 and p230 were not colocalized and had separated into two distinct staining patterns that showed minimal overlap (Fig. 1J). At 16 hpi, the TGN46 signal had completely disappeared from the infected cell (Fig. 1K and L), whereas the p230 signal remained (Fig. 1M) and in most of the cases examined was clustered around the virus factory. This showed that in uninfected cells, p230 and TGN46 colocalize but that during ASFV infection, the two proteins become separated into what appear to be distinct vesicular populations. The signal for TGN46 is then lost, while p230 is not and remains in the vicinity of the virus factory.
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FIG. 1. The
effect of ASFV on TGN is microtubule dependent. Vero cells grown on
coverslips were infected for 16 h with the Vero cell-adapted
Badajoz 1971 (Ba71v) strain of ASFV (A to N) or infected for
8 h with Ba71v and incubated for a further 8 h in
the presence of 10 µg/ml nocodazole (O to R) and then fixed,
permeabilized, and processed for indirect immunofluorescence. The cells
were stained with p230 antiserum (A) or sheep anti-TGN46 (D,
G, K, and O) and 4H3 (B and E) or p230 antiserum (G, K, and O) and then
with appropriate secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa-488 or -594. All cells were incubated with DAPI
(4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole) dye. The cells were
viewed at 60x magnification
(1.4 normal
aperture) with a Nikon E800 microscope. Images were captured with a
Hamamatsu C-4746A charge-coupled-device camera and were deconvolved and
digitally merged with Improvision Openlab 2.1.3 software. Twenty
optical sections 0.2 µm thick were analyzed. The images were
resized and annotated using Adobe Photoshop CS 8. Arrows indicate
recruitment of p230 to viral factories, arrowheads indicate viral
factories, and boxed areas designate the region enhanced in the
subsequent threepanels.
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In order to determine whether the redistribution of TGN proteins had a specific effect on the TGN or was a part of a large-scale reorganization of the secretory pathway during ASFV infection, the integrity of other compartments of the secretory pathway was studied. Antibodies were used to localize the ER, the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC), the central Golgi stacks, and the trans-Golgi cisternae. Infected cells were identified using an antibody specific for p73, the major capsid protein of ASFV (7), or antibodies raised against pE183L, a viral protein located in factories (35). Figure 2A to C show an apparent lack of the ER marker calnexin in the perinuclear regions of the infected cells that colocalized with p73, suggesting that calnexin was excluded from ASFV viral factories. Similar results have been described for the ER lumenal protein disulfide isomerase (28) and the ER membrane protein p63 (3). The ERGIC marker protein ERGIC-53 was dispersed and excluded from areas of viral replication but appeared as a compact juxtanuclear crescent in uninfected cells (Fig. 2D to F). Similarly, the resident Golgi protein GM130 was in a compact perinuclear crescent, typical of a resident Golgi marker in uninfected cells, but was also dispersed in infected cells positive for p73 (Fig. 2G to I). Cells where the trans-cisternae of the Golgi apparatus were labeled with GalNAc-T2-green fluorescent protein (GFP) are shown in Fig. 2J to L. Again, there was compact perinuclear staining in cells negative for p73, but the GalNAc-T2-GFP signal was dispersed in infected cells. Taken together, the results showed that membrane compartments proximal to the TGN are disrupted in cells infected by ASFV, but unlike the TGN, they are not lost from the cell.
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FIG. 2. Effect
of ASFV on markers of the secretory pathway. Vero cells grown on
coverslips were infected for 16 h with Ba71v and then fixed,
permeabilized, and processed for indirect immunofluorescence. The cells
were stained with 4H3 (A, G, and J) or RB7 (D)
and calnexin (B), G1/93 (E), or GM130 (H) antiserum and then
with appropriate secondary antibodies conjugated to Alexa-488 or -594.
All cells were incubated with DAPI dye (B, E, H, and K). The cells were
viewed at 60x magnification (1.4 normal aperture) with a Nikon
E800 microscope. Images were captured with a Hamamatsu C-4746A
charge-coupled-device camera and were deconvolved and digitally merged
using Improvision Openlab 2.1.3 software. Twenty optical sections 0.2
µm thick were analyzed. Images were resized and annotated using
Adobe Photoshop CS 8. Arrows indicate the positions of virus
replication
sites.
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FIG. 3. ASFV
retards the transport of VSV-G to the cell surface. (A and B) Vero
cells were transfected with pVSV K-YFP and then infected with
Ba71v 24 h later. After the inoculum was washed off, the
cells were transferred to 40°C and left overnight. The
following day, the cells were shifted to 32°C or 40°C
and incubated for a further 3 h prior to being fixed and
permeabilized. The cells were stained with R30 and I1 to stain pY118L
and VSV-G, respectively, and then with appropriate secondary antibodies
conjugated to Alexa-488 or -594. (A) Cells were viewed at
60x magnification (1.4 normal aperture) with a Nikon E800
microscope. Images were captured with a Hamamatsu C-4746A
charge-coupled-device camera and were deconvolved using Improvision
Openlab 3.1.7 software. Ten optical sections 0.2 µm thick were
analyzed. Arrows indicate infected cells expressing VSV-G.(B) Graphical representation of cell count experiments (eight
experiments for each temperature) comparing the natures of VSV-G
subcellular localization in uninfected and infected cells after
3 h of incubation at 32°C or 40°C.
(C) Vero cells were infected for 12 h
with Ba71v
at 37°C and then incubated for either one further hour at
37°C, 2 h at 27°C, or 4 h at
17°C. The cell lysates were subjected to SDS-polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis and then immunoblotted with anti-p30 monoclonal C18 or
anti-p34 antiserum TW34. The positions of molecular mass markers are
indicated to the left of each gel. The images and gel scans were
resized and annotated using Adobe Photoshop CS
8.
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0.001), and
this correlated with increased intracellular staining for the VSV-G
protein, the bulk of which was vesicular, rising from the 2.12% seen in
uninfected cells to 55.8% when cells were positive for ASFV. Factoring
in the 5.3% of infected cells that maintained ER staining showed that
after 3 h at 32°C, 60.1% of infected cells showed
intracellular VSV-G staining, compared to 2.12% of uninfected cells
(t = 21.29, P
0.001). ASFV
infection therefore retards the transport of VSV-G to the cell surface
at the permissive temperature. It was important to ensure that the temperature shift had no adverse effects on viral replication, especially as lowered temperatures can block specific steps in the secretory pathway (34, 37). Pyrexia is concurrent with viremia during ASFV infection (38), so an inhibitory effect on viral replication from elevating the temperature to 40°C while preventing VSV-G exit from the ER was not anticipated. The Arrhenius equation predicts that rates of biological reactions will halve for each 10°C fall in temperature. To test if there was a specific block in viral replication at a lowered temperature, Vero cells were infected for 12 h and then incubated for a time that would compensate for the temperature change. Levels of viral proteins were then analyzed by immunoblotting of cell lysates with antibodies against the early ASFV protein p30 (30) and late structural protein p34 (15). Figure 3C shows that the rates of synthesis of both early and late viral proteins were not affected by temperature decreases more than is predicted by simple reaction chemistry. This shows that there was no specific temperature block in ASFV replication.
Our studies described above showing slowed protein trafficking to the cell surface with a tissue culture-adapted isolate of ASFV led us to predict that infection of macrophages with virulent strains of the virus would down regulate the surface expression of immune response proteins. To test this, primary short-term monocyte/macrophage cell lines derived from peripheral blood monocytes of cc and dd inbred pigs were cultured for several weeks with recombinant porcine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (17) and the phenotype was confirmed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis with CD172a antibody (data not shown); then these cells were infected with the Malawi Lil/20 isolate of ASFV overnight (14). The surface and total expression of MHC class I molecules was examined using antibody 2.27.3 (22), and the level of infection was assessed using antibody C18. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACSCalibur; BD) analysis revealed that 89.94% of the cc cells and 76.13% of the dd cells expressed p30, indicating a high level of viral infection (data not shown). The geometric mean fluorescent intensity (MFI) of the total expression (surface and internal) of MHC class I molecules showed that ASFV infection up regulated class I molecule expression. This increase was moderate (15%) in cc cells, while in dd cells the total amount of MHC class I molecules nearly trebled (Fig. 4A). Importantly, the increase in the total amount of MHC class I molecules did not lead to a proportionate increase in the delivery of MHC class I molecules to the plasma membrane. In both cell types, ASFV caused the surface pool of MHC class I molecules to decrease as a percentage of the total amount of MHC class I molecules (Fig. 4B). For cc pigs, the percentage of MHC class I molecules on the cell surface was halved (38% to 18%) by ASFV infection. The effect was less dramatic for dd pigs, but the threefold increase in MHC class I gene expression caused by infection with ASFV resulted in only a twofold increase in the surface pool of MHC class I molecules. The reasons for the difference between cc and dd cells are not known, but these were single-time-point experiments chosen to correlate with the trafficking experiments performed with the VSV-G protein in Vero cells, where the effects of ASFV were monitored soon after the induction of late gene expression. It is possible that a greater effect on MHC class I genes may be apparent if the experiments with macrophages are repeated at later time points. Importantly, the results do show that the trafficking of an immunologically important protein to the cell surface is slowed by a virulent strain of ASFV in primary cells relevant to the speed of infection by ASFV in vivo and that this correlates with the effects of ASFV on VSV-G protein transport in a standard protein-trafficking assay.
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FIG. 4. ASFV
down regulates MHC class I molecule surface expression. (A)
Monocyte/macrophage cultures from cc and dd inbred
pigs were mock infected or infected with ASFV overnight. The cells were
stained with 2.27.3 monoclonal antibody and then anti-immunoglobulin
G2a conjugated to R-phycoerythrin. Half of the cells were permeabilized
and restained with 2.27.3. The cells were then subjected to FACSCalibur
analysis, and the MFIs of surface and total amounts MHC class I
molecules were calculated. (B) Data from panel A showing the
surface MFI expressed as a percentage of the total MFI. The numbers
above the columns show the values of the data points. In separate
experiments, the MFIs of internal MHC class I molecule staining were
confirmed by using different fluorophores for internal and surface
staining with and without a block of unconjugated isotype-specific
antibody between the internal and surface stainings. Internal staining
was also performed in the absence of surface staining. In all cases,
the controls supported the observation that ASFV infection up regulates
total MHC class I molecule expression yet suppresses the surface
expression of the protein (data not
shown).
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Disruption of vesicular transport at the TGN provides ASFV with a mechanism to slow the arrival of important immune surveillance factors to the plasma membrane, and we have demonstrated this in principal for the delivery of MHC class I molecules to the cell surfaces of macrophages infected with virulent ASFV. It is important to note that we do not have direct evidence that the slowed delivery of MHC class I molecules to the cell surface compromises the recognition of infected cells by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. We do know, however, that even though ASFV infection increases the expression of MHC class I genes in cc and dd cell lines, the bulk of the MHC class I molecules induced by ASFV infection remains intracellular. This may be important in the context of infection, as the newly synthesized MHC molecules induced by ASFV would likely be loaded with viral rather than self-peptides. Therefore, slowing the surface expression of MHC molecules loaded with viral peptides may reduce cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte-mediated host cell lysis early enough to allow a productive infection, while avoiding NK cell-mediated cell lysis that may be induced by a total block in secretion. Further experiments will be required to determine whether ASFV infection affects the turnover of MHC class I molecules on the cell surface and whether this leads to the increased NK activity observed during ASFV infection (21) or to a reduced ability to present antigens to T cells. ASFV is a macrophage-tropic virus, and inhibition of anterograde transport may significantly alter the immune response of infected animals in other ways where functional disruption of the secretory pathway would be predicted to affect the secretion of many crucial cytokines and chemokines. Efforts are under way to determine if this occurs in vivo.
Published
ahead of print on 6 September 2006. ![]()
¶ Present
address: Laboratory for Clinical and Molecular Virology, University of
Edinburgh, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 1QH, United
Kingdom. ![]()
Present
address: Infection and Immunity, School of Medicine, Health Policy and
Practice, Institute of Health, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4
TJU, United Kingdom. ![]()
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B homolog encoded by
African swine fever virus provides a novel mechanism for downregulation
of proinflammatory cytokine responses in host macrophages.J. Virol.
70:8527-8533.[Abstract]
B by a
viral homologue of I
B
. J. Biol.
Chem.
275:34656-34664.This article has been cited by other articles:
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