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Journal of Virology, April 2007, p. 3369-3376, Vol. 81, No. 7
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01295-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, BMC B13, 221 84 Lund, Sweden,1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Medical Microbiology/Virology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 23, 22362 Lund, Sweden2
Received 20 June 2006/ Accepted 12 January 2007
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HIV-1 enters target cells through interactions between the viral glycoproteins (gp120 and gp41), the cellular receptor CD4, and a coreceptor, most often CCR5 or CXCR4 (1). CCR5-using (R5) viruses are often present in the early phase of infection, whereas CXCR4-using (X4) viruses usually appear (or become detectable) only at later stages. The broadening of coreceptor usage to include CXCR4 is associated with accelerated loss of CD4 cells and faster progression to AIDS (41). After the appearance of X4 viruses, the R5 and X4 populations most often coexist in the host. The cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for virus coreceptor switch during the course of infection are still unclear. Several hypotheses have been proposed that may explain the late appearance of X4 viruses (38). The transmission-mutation hypothesis suggests that R5 viruses are preferentially transmitted and gradually mutate into X4 viruses, whereas the target-cell-based hypothesis emphasizes that a gradual shift in the availability of CCR5- and CXCR4-expressing cell populations is responsible for the appearance of X4 viruses. Finally, the immune system-based hypothesis suggests that X4 viruses are better recognized by the immune system and subsequently suppressed. X4 populations may emerge as a consequence of gradual immune system dysfunction.
During a study of intrapatient HIV-1 evolution, we identified several cases of recombination between coexisting R5 and X4 viruses. A hot spot for recombination was identified in the C2 region of env, and sequence analysis showed that a small part of the envelope, including the V3 region, determined coreceptor usage for both R5 and X4 recombinants. On the basis of these findings, we hypothesize that double infection followed by recombination between coexisting R5 and X4 viruses could generate less well immune system-controlled X4 variants which could be of great importance for the emergence of X4 viruses later in infection.
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TABLE 1. Coreceptor usage of sequential HIV-1 isolates and of V1-V3 clones from dualtropic isolates
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V, a NheI-linearized vector containing a full-length pNL4-3 genome with the region from V1 to V3 (V1-V3) deleted (46), and with 1 µg amplified V1-V3 fragment (see below) using the calcium phosphate precipitation method. Cells were washed with phosphate-buffered saline 16 h after transfection. After 48 h, the supernatant, containing chimeric virus, was removed, cleared by centrifugation, and stored at 80°C. Determination of coreceptor usage. Human kidney embryonic cell line 293T cells and human glioma U87.CD4 cells, stably expressing CD4 and one of the chemokine receptors (CCR5 or CXCR4) (7) were maintained as described previously (30). Twenty-four hours prior to infection, 105 U87.CD4 cells/well were seeded in 48-well plates. For infection, 200 µl of chimeric virus was added. Cells were washed three times with Dulbecco modified Eagle medium 16 h postinfection. Six days postinfection, the cultures were analyzed for syncytium formation and p24 by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit (Biomérieux, Boxtel, The Netherlands).
Amplification, cloning, and sequencing. Viral RNA was extracted and purified from peripheral blood mononuclear cell culture supernatants, using Nukleospin RNA virus kit (Machery-Nagel, Germany) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Purified RNA was reverse transcribed using Superscript II (Invitrogen), and the V1-V3 region was amplified from cDNA using the Expand High Fidelity PCR system (Roche) and primers E20 and E115 (46) as described by the protocol supplied by Roche. The amplified products, approximately 900 bp (nucleotides 6002 to 6903 in HXB2; GenBank accession number AF033819), were cloned using the TOPO-TA cloning system (Invitrogen). From each isolate, 10 colonies were picked, and viral V1-V3 DNA was amplified as described above. Clones were named as follows: the patient identification number, month of isolation, and clone number (patient-month:clone number). In the case of patient 2242, two samples were taken 63 and 85 months postinfection. The second isolates for each month for this patient are designated 2242-63:2 and 2242-85:2.
Purified V1-V3 DNA was sequenced using an ABI PRISM Big Dye Termination kit (Applied Biosystems) according to the manufacturer's instructions using primers E20 (46), 793SEQ4 (5'-CAGCAGTGAGTTGATACTACTGG-3'), and JA168 and JA169 (24). Sequences were determined using ABI Prism 3100 (Applied Biosystems).
Phylogenetic analysis. Sequences were assembled, and contigs were analyzed with CodonCode Aligner version 1.4.3 (CodonCode Corporation), aligned with ClustalX (45) and manually edited using GeneDoc. Sequences from each patient were treated as individual data sets, and Modeltest (36) was used to identify the nucleotide substitution model that fit the data best. Maximum-likelihood trees were constructed with PAUP* 4.0 (Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers) using heuristic searches. Statistical support of the trees was obtained by 100 bootstrap replicates using the LUNARC computer cluster (http://www.lunarc.lu.se) at Lund University, Sweden.
Recombination analysis. First, the data sets for each patient were split into two regions (V1/V2 and V3), and the phylogenetic trees were constructed for each data set (39). A clone was considered a recombinant if it clustered with different groups of sequences separated by significant bootstrap values (90% or more) in the two trees (see Fig. 2A and B). Putative parental sequences were identified as the sequences most similar to the recombinant in these trees. Second, we identified recombination breakpoints and parental sequences with BootScan analysis (27) using a window size of 200 bp and a 20-bp sliding step. The two putative parental sequences were considered true parental sequences if they clustered together with the recombinant in more than 90% of the permuted trees (see Fig. 2C). If both parental sequences were identified, the recombination breakpoint could be identified, the data set was split at that position, and trees were generated as described above (see Fig. 2D and E). Finally, the recombinant and parental sequences were inspected manually (see Fig. 3).
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FIG. 2. Schematic illustration of the recombination analysis, exemplified by clones from patient 2282. Phylogenetic trees were constructed from (A) the V1/V2 regions and (B) the V3 regions. Clones that clustered with different groups of sequences were considered recombinants if the groups were separated by a significant bootstrap value ( 90%) in the two trees. (C) Recombinants were analyzed by BootScan analysis for identification of the recombination breakpoints. (D and E) The data set was split at the breakpoint (nucleotide 328) and two trees were constructed to confirm the results. Different symbols represent the coreceptor usage of the clones and sampling time postinfection. Open symbols show clones from R5 isolates, gray symbols indicate phenotypically characterized R5 clones from R5X4 isolates, and black symbols represent phenotypically characterized X4 clones from R5X4 isolates. Recombinants (II, VI, and VII) and parental (III and X) clones are indicated with roman numerals. Sequences that differed by 3 nucleotides or less are represented by one terminal branch, and the number of clones that are represented at a branch is indicated. Bootstrap values that separated groups and were used for identification of recombinants are indicated.
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FIG. 3. Amino acid sequences of recombinant clones. (A) R5 clone 2282-70 VII, (B) X4 clone 2282-63 VI, (C) X4 clone 2282-62 II X4, (D) X4 clone 2242-85:2 I, (E) X4 clone 2242-85:2 II, and (F) R5 clone 2242-85:2 IX. Recombinant sequences are shown in the middle of each alignment, and the parental sequences are shown above and below each recombinant sequence. Shaded regions indicate where the recombinants are most similar to one of the parental sequences. Regions shaded in light gray indicate similarity between the recombinant sequence and the R5 parental sequence, and regions highlighted in dark gray show regions of similarity between the recombinant and the X4 parent. The locations of the V1-V2, C2, and V3 regions are indicated. Dots represent identical amino acids between the recombinant and parental sequences. Recombinant clone 2242-85:2 II was most likely a result of a double-crossover event as indicated. The coreceptor usage is indicated in parentheses.
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Phylogenetic analysis. We determined the nucleotide sequences of 253 V1-V3 clones and constructed maximum-likelihood trees to study the relationships of sequences within each patient (Fig. 1A to D). In all four patients, the sequences were separated according to coreceptor usage. The bootstrap values for branches separating R5 and X4 clones were 100%, 79%, 66%, and 80% for patients 1865, 2239, 2242, and 2282, respectively. Closer inspection of the phylogenetic trees revealed several deviant sequences that either (i) were scattered between the R5 and X4 populations (2239-68 III; 2242-85:2 I, II; 2282-62 II; 2282-63 VI; Fig. 1A to C), (ii) had long branch lengths (2242-85:2 IX; 2282-47 III, IV, IX; 2282-70 VII; Fig. 1A to C), or (iii) clustered together with sequences that represented different phenotypes, i.e., one R5 clone (2239-68 I; Fig. 1A) clustered with X4 clones.
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FIG. 1. Phylogenetic relationship of HIV-1 V1-V3 clones from patients (A) 2239, (B) 2242, (C) 2282 and (D) 1865. Bootstrap values (as percentages) are indicated on branches separating R5 and X4 populations. Sequences that differed by 3 nucleotides or less are represented by one terminal branch, and the number of clones that are represented at a branch is indicated. Deviant clones (see Results) are indicated with roman numerals. Different symbols represent the coreceptor usage of the isolate and sampling time postinfection. Open symbols show clones derived from R5 isolates, gray symbols indicate phenotypically characterized R5 clones from R5X4 isolates, and black symbols represent phenotypically characterized X4 clones from R5X4 isolates or clones from R3X4 isolates.
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Recombination analysis. Since recombinants have acquired genetic material from at least two sources, they should cluster with different groups of sequences when trees are constructed from subsets of the data (39). To identify recombinants, we analyzed our data sets in three different ways. First, we generated one tree for the V1/V2 region and one for the V3 region from sequences from each patient. As exemplified by patient 2282 in Fig. 2A and B, six clones (47 III, IV, IX; 62 II; and 63 VI and 70 VII) clustered with different groups of sequences in the two trees. The cluster identity of the clones was supported by significant bootstrap values in both the V1/V2 and V3 trees, supporting that these sequences were the result of recombination events. To confirm these findings, we performed BootScan analysis. As seen in Fig. 2C, clone 62 II clustered together with clone 62 X in the 5' end and with clone 63 III in the 3' end. The recombination breakpoint was determined at nucleotide position 328 in the V1-V3 region analyzed (nucleotide 6473 in HXB2; GenBank accession number AF033819). Finally, to confirm the BootScan analysis, the data set was split at this position, and two trees were generated. As expected, clone 62 II clustered together with different sequences in the two trees (Fig. 2D and E).
Using this approach, we identified recombinants in all patients except for patient 1865, which was the only patient that had R5 and X4 variants that were phylogenetically separated by significant bootstrap values in the phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 1D). We identified 11 recombinants, representing 8.8% of the total 125 clones from CXCR4-using (R5X4 and R3X4) isolates (Table 1). Sequence analysis revealed that 10 of the recombinants had originated by recombination events between R5 and X4 viruses, where the majority of the recombinants used CXCR4 (8 of the 11 recombinants) (Table 2). Five of the recombinants originated from recombination between phenotypically characterized R5 and X4 clones, five from recombination between phenotypically characterized X4 clones and predicted R5 clones (on the basis of significant separation from X4 clones in V1/V2 phylogenetic tree, see Materials and Methods), and one, 2242-85:2 IX, originated from recombination event between two phenotypically characterized R5 clones (Table 2). For 6 of the 11 recombinants, both parental sequences were identified. The recombination breakpoints were located in the C2 or V3 region. For the remaining recombinant sequences, we were not able to identify the putative parental sequences (see Materials and Methods for definition of parental sequences) which corroborated identification of breakpoints.
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TABLE 2. Recombinant clones
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Identification of recombination breakpoints between V1/V2 and V3 allowed us to analyze the impact on coreceptor usage of these two regions. For R5 recombinant clone 2282-70 VII, the V3 region and part of the C2 region was derived from the R5 parental sequence, whereas the remaining part of C2 and V1/V2 was contributed by the parental X4 sequence (Fig. 3A). The opposite was observed for the recombinant X4 clones 2282-63 VI (Fig. 3B) and 2282-62 II (Fig. 3C). In the case of the recombinant X4 clone 2242-85:2 I, only a small part, including V3, was derived from the X4 parental sequence, whereas the rest of the sequence was donated by the R5 parent (Fig. 3D). In fact, only five amino acids of the entire recombinant sequence (four located in V3) were X4 specific.
All recombinants had the same phenotype as the parental sequences that donated the 3' part (including V3) of the recombinant sequences (Fig. 3 and Table 2). Our results suggest that the V1/V2 region does not impact on coreceptor usage and that the V3 region determines coreceptor usage for our recombinant clones (Fig. 3).
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Recombinants may be generated in vitro during the process of PCR (37) or when the virus is propagated in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. However, several observations make in vitro recombination an unlikely explanation for the origin of the recombinants reported here. First, the nucleotide sequences of the recombinants differed from the parental sequences, that is, identical parental sequences representing the recombinant were never found. This would have been expected if the recombinants were generated in vitro (37). Second, we identified only one of the two putative parental sequences for five of the recombinants (2239-68 I and III, 2282-47 III, IV, and IX). The remaining part of the recombinant had low similarity to other clones. Third, three recombinants had one of the their parental sequences in a phylogenetic cluster that contained only clones isolated from a time point that differed from the isolation time point of the recombinant (Fig. 3 and Table 2). Taking these observations into consideration (37) and the fact that both double infection (4, 14) and intrapatient recombination are commonly observed for HIV-1 in vivo (3, 14, 19, 34, 48), we feel confident that the majority of our recombinant sequences originated in vivo (37).
Recombination events between R5 and X4 within patients have to our knowledge been reported only three times previously (3, 19, 48). Results of these studies differ from ours because none of them addressed the impact of recombination on coreceptor usage and HIV-1 pathogenesis. Here, we determined both the genotype and coreceptor usage of V1-V3 clones from sequential isolates from four switch virus patients. Characterization of the patient material in this way allowed us to couple recombination events to coreceptor usage. The majority of breakpoints that we identified were located in the C2 region (Fig. 3 and Table 2) which is in agreement with a recent report where the C2 region was identified as a hotspot for recombination (9). Identification of the recombination breakpoints together with coreceptor usage data made it possible for us to perform a detailed analysis on how the V1-V3 region impacts on coreceptor usage. We presented evidence that a small part of the envelope, including the V3 region, alone determined coreceptor specificity of the recombinant sequences studied here. Several reports have previously suggested that the V3 region is the dominant determinant for coreceptor usage (6, 8, 13, 43). It has also been suggested that other regions of env are involved in determining coreceptor usage (12, 23, 31, 32). This highlights that HIV-1 coreceptor usage, and its determinants, is complex. This is supported by a recent study which demonstrated that the V1/V2 region can compensate for loss-of-fitness mutations in the V3 region (33). A possible explanation for our results is that the clones studied here, have well-adapted, biologically optimal X4 and R5 V3 regions. Such V3 regions would be independent of the V1/V2 region in the context of coreceptor usage (33).
The appearance and dominance of X4 viruses late in infection have been debated for many years without finding a biological explanation for this phenomenon. One hypothesis addressing the coreceptor switch involves immune control (38). This hypothesis is based upon the assumption that X4 viruses are better recognized by the immune system than R5 viruses and, consequently, are suppressed. In agreement with this, in 2003, Harouse et al. showed that rhesus macaques coinfected with R5 and X4 simian-human immunodeficiency hybrid viruses showed an increase in the X4 population and a decrease in the R5 population upon depletion of CD8+ T cells (11). It has also been shown that the V1/V2 region is important for inducing neutralizing antibody response (10, 40, 44, 49, 50). A recent report also suggested that the V1/V2 region is a global regulator of the sensitivity of primary HIV-1 isolates to neutralizing antibodies (35). Furthermore, Ye et al. (50) showed that the conformational arrangement of V2 and V3 with respect to the CD4 receptor binding region of gp120 appears to be critical for the recognition by neutralizing antibodies. Thus, rearrangements in the C2 region could have a dramatic effect on the immune response directed toward the viral population. Therefore, a recombination event between an immune-resistant R5 virus and an X4 virus in the C2 region could generate variants with the potential to evade the immune response and infect cells expressing CXCR4. The broadening in cell tropism of the viral population to include CXCR4-expressing cells would result in increased CD4+ cell death and further impair the immune system, which would allow the suppressed X4 population to expand. We hypothesize that coinfection and recombination between R5 and X4 viruses may in part be responsible for the coreceptor switch late in infection.
This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency/Department for Research Cooperation (SIDA/SAREC), and the Royal Physiographic Society, Lund, Sweden. DNA sequencing was performed at the SWEGENE Center of Genomic Ecology, supported by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden, through the SWEGENE consortium.
Published ahead of print on 24 January 2007. ![]()
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