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Journal of Virology, September 2007, p. 10195-10200, Vol. 81, No. 18
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01058-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Cellular and Molecular Biology, FNRS-FUSAGx, Gembloux, Belgium,1 Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre, Uccle, Belgium2
Received 16 May 2007/ Accepted 29 June 2007
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In an attempt to define the viral determinants required for transformation, we first established a model system based on the infection of sheep with a cloned BLV provirus (36). Among a series of proviruses, the 344 strain recapitulated all aspects associated with a lymphoproliferative disease followed by the onset of leukemia, lymphoma, or lymphosarcoma. In order to discover the role of viral genes in the leukemogenesis process (which includes all events leading to leukemia, lymphoma, or lymphosarcoma), we used reverse genetics by introducing directed deletions, insertions, and point mutations into the 344 proviral clone (35). By this approach, we previously demonstrated that the R3 and G4 accessory genes are dispensable for infection but are required for the maintenance of high proviral loads (34). Furthermore, the G4 protein, but not R3, exhibits transforming potential in primary rat embryo fibroblasts when coexpressed with the Ha-ras oncogene (15). Indeed, the G4- and Ha-ras-double-positive cells form transformed foci in cell cultures and induce tumors in nude mice. Mechanistically, G4 interacts with farnesyl pyrophosphate synthetase, a protein involved in the mevalonate-squalene pathway (17). Finally, proviruses mutated in G4 were found to be nonpathogenic in 13 sheep over a period of 40 months postinoculation while the wild-type strain 344 induced leukemia or lymphoma in 19 of 23 infected animals (15).
In Table 1, we now present the results of a 15-year survey of 53 sheep infected with either wild-type (n = 29) or mutant (n = 24) BLV proviruses. Some sheep died from unrelated causes (e.g., accidents, diarrhea, scabies, or old age) or were euthanized because the experiment was discontinued. The latency period preceding leukemogenesis in wild-type virus-infected sheep ranged between 13 and 80 months (mean, 36 months). In contrast, R3-G4 mutant proviruses were nonpathogenic in 19 animals but not in sheep 245. In this animal, the proviral loads, as determined by real-time PCR (18), increased sharply 6 years postinoculation, reaching almost 6,000 viral genome copies per mm3 of blood (Fig. 1A). Although the cell counts remained below the lymphocytic threshold arbitrarily set at 10,000 lymphocytes per mm3 (Fig. 1B), these levels corresponded to approximately one viral genome copy per cell (Fig. 1C). More importantly, multiple tumors appeared in several lymphoid tissues, including a mesenteric lymph node. A cryosection excised from this lymph node tumor and labeled with anti-CD21 showed that the tumor was of B-cell origin (Fig. 1D). Inverse PCR, performed as described in reference 20, demonstrated that three infected cell clones expanded in the blood 10 months before death and that one of them became predominant in the solid tumor (Fig. 1E). Finally, a complete proviral genome copy was inserted into the cellular genome, as shown by PCR (Fig. 1F) and Southern blot hybridization (data not shown).
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TABLE 1. Summary of results of infection of sheep with wild-type and mutant BLV proviruses
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FIG. 1. Induction of leukemia and lymphoma in sheep 245 infected with an attenuated strain of BLV harboring a deletion in the R3 and G4 accessory genes. Sheep 245 was infected with BLV provirus DX, which derives from the wild-type BLV strain 344 but contains a deletion in the R3 and G4 genes. At regular intervals postinfection, blood was collected by jugular venipuncture. (A) Proviral loads were quantified by real-time PCR and represented as numbers of viral genome copies per cubic millimeter of blood. (B) Leukocyte counts were determined by using a Coulter Counter, model ZN, and the relative proportions of lymphocytes were estimated by examination under a microscope after May-Grunwald and Giemsa staining. (C) Proviral loads reported relative to the number of peripheral blood cells. (D) Cryosections from the tumoral mesenteric lymph node were stained either with anti-CD21 (left panel) or with anti-CD4 (right panel) monoclonal antibodies in association with a fluorescein isothiocyanate conjugate and analyzed by confocal microscopy. B, B cell. (E) The profile of provirus integration sites was analyzed by inverse PCR of peripheral blood and tumor cells. The sizes of the fragments are indicated on the left. MW, molecular size markers (V; Roche). (F) DNA (250 ng) extracted from whole blood or tumor cells was subjected to nonquantitative long-PCR amplification of the integrated provirus using primers located in the 5' and 3' long terminal repeats (expected molecular size of the amplicon, 7.7 kb). MW', molecular size markers (Smart Ladder; Eurogentec).
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FIG. 2. Lack of reversion of the R3-G4 deletion mutant and maintenance of the attenuated phenotype after injection of blood from sheep 245 into naïve recipient hosts. (A) Nucleotide sequence and corresponding sequence chromatogram of a PCR product from DNA from sheep 245 amplified using primers encompassing the R3-G4 deletion (coordinates 7011 to 6605 according to reference 23). (B) Blood from sheep 245 was injected into two BLV-free animals, 1086 and 1091 ( ). Their proviral loads (in numbers of genome copies per 100 cells) were quantified by real-time PCR at 7 months postinfection and compared to the levels reached in sheep infected with wild-type ( ) and attenuated (x) viruses (IG4, CRE, R3-G4, and 6073 Tyr mutants). Statistical relevance (NS, not statistically significant, and *, statistically significant) was calculated according to the two-tailed unpaired Student t test.
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Collectively, our data show that the R3-G4 deletion mutant may be pathogenic in sheep, albeit infrequently (1 of 20) and after a long latency period (e.g., 90 months). Interestingly, among all BLV mutants analyzed to date (5, 10, 15, 19, 26, 30-32, 34, 35), we found another example of leukemogenesis induced by an attenuated virus (Table 1). Indeed, one (277) of four sheep infected with BLV mutant 6073 Tyr developed leukemia (Fig. 3A) and lymphoma (Fig. 3B) concomitantly. Three clones were integrated in the tumor genome (Fig. 3C), and the T-to-G transversion located in the cytoplasmic domain of the viral gp30 transmembrane gene pertaining to this mutant was preserved (Fig. 3D).
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FIG. 3. Pathogenicity in sheep 277 of an attenuated BLV strain mutated in the transmembrane protein YXXL signaling motifs. Sheep 277 was infected with the attenuated BLV mutant 6073 Tyr carrying a T-to-G transversion located in the cytoplasmic domain of the viral gp30 transmembrane gene. Blood was collected at regular intervals postinfection. (A) Lymphocyte counts were determined by using a Coulter Counter, model ZN, and May-Grunwald and Giemsa staining, and proviral loads were quantified by real-time PCR. (B) Cryosections from a tumoral mesenteric lymph node stained with anti-CD21 (left panel) or with anti-CD4 (right panel) monoclonal antibodies and analyzed by confocal microscopy. B, B cell. (C) The profile of provirus integration sites was analyzed by inverse PCR of peripheral blood and tumor cells. The sizes of the fragments are indicated on the left. MW, molecular size markers (V; Roche). (D) Nucleotide sequence and corresponding sequence chromatogram (coordinates 6270 to 6299 according to reference 23) of a PCR product amplified from a tumor from sheep 277. The position of the T-to-G transversion is marked by an asterisk.
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It is known that, during leukemogenesis, events and conditions such as chromosomal instability that leads to aneuploidy, cellular gene mutations, deletions, and amplifications occur and accumulate while disease progresses (6, 25). Moreover, a viral protein like Tax also potentially induces defective DNA repair (21). These modifications of the cellular genome may favor leukemic cell growth by promoting cell proliferation or inactivating tumor suppressors. Even proviral sequences are frequently deleted in tumors, leading to defective viruses apparently unable to express any viral protein (16, 27). This process may allow escape from the host's immune response and promote the survival of the tumor clone. Cellular and viral genomic mutations are rare events thought to contribute to a multistep mechanism of leukemogenesis (28). In this context, we speculate that BLV replication during the asymptomatic phase abnormally increases the turnover of the virus-infected B-cell population and thereby increases the likelihood that genomic mutations will occur. The occurrence of these events would be restricted in sheep infected with attenuated mutants since the proviral loads are reduced due to impaired mitotic expansion or infectious replication. This simple model provides a straightforward rationale for the observed difference in pathogenic potential between attenuated and wild-type proviruses.
These data obtained from this BLV model system may be of interest concerning the related human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), responsible for adult T-cell leukemia and a neurodegenerative disease called tropical spastic paraparesis or HTLV-associated myelopathy (9, 39). Although rabbits, mice, rats, and monkeys are informative model systems, there is indeed no fully satisfactory experimental model for HTLV that includes concomitant viral infection and induction of disease. In rabbits, HTLV p12I and p13II/p30II accessory genes, the orthologs of R3 and G4 genes, are required to maintain high proviral loads, suggesting their implication in viral pathogenesis (3, 4). Whether the integrity of these genes contributes to disease progression in HTLV-1-infected subjects remains to be determined. However, p12I mutations in a significant proportion of tropical spastic paraparesis-HTLV-associated myelopathy and adult T-cell leukemia patients have been identified previously (8, 13).
The low but still significant pathogenic potential of BLV deletion mutants described in this report has major implications for the future development of vaccines based on attenuated viruses. A similar objection for rhesus macaques infected with simian immunodeficiency virus was raised previously, impairing human immunodeficiency virus vaccination trials (reviewed in references 24 and 29). Indeed, infection with a triply mutated simian immunodeficiency virus strain (carrying deletions in nef, vpr, and the 3' long terminal repeat) leads to reduced viral loads and provides partial protection against challenge (37) but provokes AIDS progression in neonatal macaques (1, 38) as well as adult animals after prolonged observation (2, 12). To explain the divergent behavior of this vaccine strain (i.e., the induction of protective immunity in some animals and fatal immunodeficiency in others), the "threshold hypothesis" has been proposed (12, 29). In this model, an attenuated virus must replicate at a sufficiently high rate to trigger an immune response (the "vaccine threshold"). However, high viral loads exceeding the "disease threshold" cause disease. An effective vaccination thus occurs only if the viral burden falls into the discrete window between these two thresholds. Although BLV R3-G4 deletion mutant loads apparently fall within this threshold range and confer efficient protective immunity (14, 22), pathogenicity in sheep may occur after extended periods of time. Our present report thus highlights another important parameter in this model: the cumulative risk of disease onset that increases with time.
We are grateful to Hervé Balon, François Debande, Rafaela Fandango, and Jean-Marie Londes for experimental assistance. We thank Yves Beckers and André Théwis for support in animal housing facilities.
Published ahead of print on 11 July 2007. ![]()
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