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Journal of Virology, August 2008, p. 7735-7740, Vol. 82, No. 15
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02524-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Mechanistic Studies of a T20-Dependent Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Variant
Chris Baldwin and
Ben Berkhout*
Laboratory of Experimental Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology, Center for Infection and Immunity Amsterdam (CINIMA), Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Received 26 November 2007/
Accepted 5 May 2008

ABSTRACT
We previously described a T20-dependent human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 variant from a patient on T20 therapy (
3). This
virus carries two mutations in the gp41 domain of the envelope
protein (Env) that was proposed to undergo a premature conformational
switch to the 6-helix bundle structure. The T20 peptide can
rescue this hyperfusogenic Env protein by preventing the premature
switch and preserving an earlier prefusion conformation, thus
restoring virus infectivity and replication. In this study,
we set out to critically test this mechanistic explanation with
alternative effectors that may control the Env switch, including
other fusion inhibitors and antibodies that target gp41.

TEXT
The fusion inhibitor T20 (Fuzeon) represents a new class of
antivirals that inhibit viral entry (
12,
23,
24). T20 is a 36-amino-acid
peptide derived from the C-terminal region of HR2 (Fig.
1A).
By binding to HR1, T20 blocks the formation of the 6-helix bundle,
which is a prerequisite for membrane fusion and viral entry
(Fig.
1B, left) (
10,
24). T1249 is an improved 39-amino-acid
peptide inhibitor (Fig.
1A). The C-terminal region of T1249
is almost identical to that of T20, but the N terminus differs
in sequence and is extended by another 3 residues. T1249 is
composed of sequences derived from human immunodeficiency virus
type 1 (HIV-1), HIV-2, and simian immunodeficiency virus (
7,
21). Another HR2-derived inhibitor is C34 (Fig.
1A) (
6,
14,
19). C34 includes residues located toward the N-terminal region
of HR2, so it interacts with more-conserved HR1 regions, making
it less susceptible to the evolution of drug-resistant viruses
(
5,
16). We also targeted the HR2 region of gp41 with the fusion
inhibitor 5-helix protein (Fig.
1B, middle panel) (
20), which
is based on the 6-helix bundle crystal structure (
6). The 5-helix
protein contains five of these six helices joined by short peptide
linkers, forming a stable 5-helix structure that exposes one
HR2 binding site. We also used antibodies that target either
the HR2 (2F5 and 4E10) or HR1 domain (D5-IGg1) of Env gp41 (Fig.
1B, right). The binding epitopes for 2F5 and 4E10 in HR2 are
indicated in Fig.
1A.
T20-resistant HIV-1 variants have been described for patients
failing T20 therapy (
3,
9,
17,
18,
22,
25). Sequence analysis
revealed the acquisition of mutations within a stretch of three
HR1 amino acids, glycine-isoleucine-valine (the GIV motif underlined
in Fig.
1A; HxB2 amino acid positions 547 to 549 of gp160).
These HR1 mutations disrupt T20 binding, thus providing a mechanism
for resistance (Fig.
1C, middle panel). However, these mutations
also affect the HR1-HR2 interaction, and hence, T20-resistant
viruses usually have decreased fitness (
2,
3,
13). Recently,
we described the evolution of a drug-dependent HIV-1 variant
in a patient that failed T20 therapy (
3). This virus acquired
the T20 resistance mutation GI
A in HR1 (GI
V to GI
A; mutated
amino acids are underlined) and a subsequent change in the 3-amino-acid
SNY sequence of the HR2 domain (S
NY to S
KY). This HR1-HR2 double
mutant (with the GI
A and S
KY mutations) dominated the viral
population after 32 weeks of therapy, and it was not only highly
resistant to T20 but was in fact critically dependent on this
peptide for its replication.
We proposed a mechanistic model for drug-dependent viral entry (Fig. 1C, bottom panel) (2, 3). Briefly, resistance to T20 is caused by the GIA mutation in HR1, which weakens the interaction with T20 (resistance) and HR2 (6-helix bundle formation). The reduced HR1-HR2 affinity negatively impacts Env-mediated fusion and HIV-1 fitness (2, 3, 13). T20 dependence is caused by the SKY mutation in HR2, which stabilizes the HR1-HR2 interaction (3). However, the SKY mutation creates a hyperfusogenic Env gp41 that may prematurely undergo the conformational switch, which effectively kills virus infectivity. T20 is able to prevent this premature switch by preserving an earlier prefusion conformation, enabling gp41 to undergo the conformational switch at the correct moment in the fusion process. T20 control should be transient, as the peptide should leave the complex to allow the subsequent HR1-HR2 interaction. According to this mechanism of T20 dependence, any compound that transiently interferes with the HR1-HR2 interaction should be able to support the replication of the GIA-SKY mutant virus.
To test if this T20-dependent virus can be induced by other gp41 fusion inhibitors, we performed replication assays in the presence of C34, T1249, the 5-helix protein, and T20 as the positive control (Fig. 2). Besides the T20-dependent GIA-SKY mutant construct, two other viruses, the GIV-SNY (wild-type; T20 sensitive) and GIA-SNY (single mutant; T20 resistant) constructs, were used. Viral DNA constructs were transfected into the SupT1 T-cell line and cultured in the presence or absence of fusion inhibitors. We only show CA-p24 values for day 6 posttransfection, which best represent the relative differences in replication capacity. As expected, replication of the wild-type virus was strongly inhibited by all inhibitors, and the GIA-SNY single mutant was resistant to T20 (3, 6a, 22). This mutant displayed some resistance to C34 but was completely sensitive to T1249 and 5-helix. The GIA-SKY double mutant was clearly dependent on T20 as previously described (3). The C34 peptide was able to induce GIA-SKY mutant replication at concentrations up to 500 ng/ml, but higher concentrations inhibited replication. We previously reported a similar phenomenon at high T20 levels (3). C34 is somewhat more potent than T20, as it binds the deep pocket in HR1 (5). Our model suggests that the peptide needs to be released at some stage during the fusion process to enable the HR1-HR2 interaction, 6-helix bundle formation, and membrane fusion, and it is likely that peptide release is blocked at high peptide concentrations. T1249 did not induce GIA-SKY mutant replication, presumably due to its higher affinity for HR1. If the peptide remains bound to HR1, it will block all further conformational steps. 5-Helix, which targets the HR2 region of gp41, was also able to activate the GIA-SKY mutant in a dose-dependent manner.
We performed a cell-cell fusion assay with the variant Env molecules
(Fig.
3). Our hypothesis is that this measures Env activity
before a potential premature switch can occur because Env molecules
are engaged in the fusion process as soon as they appear at
the cell surface (
3). One cell expresses the wild-type or mutant
Env protein and the other cell the appropriate receptors (CD4
and CXCR4), and fusion was scored by syncytium formation. A
long terminal repeat-luciferase reporter was introduced in the
acceptor cell that is activated upon cell fusion by the Tat
protein expressed in the donor cell. Compared to the fusion
activity for wild-type Env, we consistently measured reduced
fusion activity (syncytium and luciferase counts) for the GI
A-SNY
single mutant and increased activity for the GI
A-S
KY double
mutant, which confirms its hyperactivity (
3).
Next, we tested the effects of the inhibitors T20, C34, T1249,
and 5-helix in the cell-cell fusion assay. Not surprisingly,
the wild-type Env was inhibited by T20, and the GI
A-SNY mutant
was relatively T20 resistant. The GI
A-S
KY mutant displayed a
similar resistance phenotype as that displayed by the GI
A mutant.
These results indicate that the GI
A mutation in HR1 is responsible
for reduced T20 affinity (resistance) and reduced HR2 affinity
(fusion activity) and that the S
KY mutation in HR2 creates a
hyperfusogenic Env. The latter property may seem to contradict
the observation of impaired virus replication, but a premature
switch will result in dead Env spikes on the surfaces of virus
particles. T20 may prevent such premature inactivation and thus
rescue virus infectivity. C34 gave a resistance pattern very
similar to that of T20, and this was expected because C34 has
a similar mode of action. T1249 inhibited all HIV-1 variants
tested, confirming the superior inhibitory activity of this
inhibitor, particularly because lower concentrations of the
drug were used. 5-Helix, which targets the HR2 region, gave
very similar results for wild-type, GI
A-SNY, and GI
A-S
KY viruses,
indicating that these viruses are not resistant to 5-helix.
This is not surprising because the GI
A mutation is located outside
the actual 5-helix target region. Because 5-helix is unrelated
structurally to T20 and targets a different gp41 region, this
result supports our T20 dependence model. It suggests that inhibitors
that impede the formation of the 6-helix bundle provide an advantage
to the hyperfusogenic Env protein, presumably by preventing
the premature switch.
Env-targeted antibodies, which are much larger in size than peptide fusion inhibitors, provide an alternative tool to probe the mechanism of T20 dependence. We used the well-characterized antibodies D5-IgG1 (15), which targets HR1 and 2F5 (11), and 4E10 (4), which targets HR2 (Fig. 1B). The GIA-SKY molecular clone was transfected into the SupT1 T-cell line, and viral spread in the culture was monitored in the presence or absence of different concentrations of antibody. Viral replication curves were measured over an 8-day period (Fig. 4). D5-IgG1, which was suggested to target transient gp41 structural intermediates similar to the ones induced by the binding of fusion inhibitors T20, C34, and T1249 (15), had the greatest induction effect. The 2F5 and 4E10 antibodies, which recognize epitope sites toward the C-terminal end of HR2, were able to induce GIA-SKY virus replication. The 4E10 epitope binding site only partially overlaps HR2, which may explain its reduced induction capacity relative to that of 2F5.
It may perhaps be surprising that gp41-binding antibodies are
also able to support the replication of the T20-dependent virus
because an intrinsic prediction of the mechanistic model is
that these reagents should not only bind to HR2 but also be
released in time to allow membrane fusion. This release may
be expected to be slower for high-affinity antibodies than for
the small-peptide drugs. It may be of interest to address these
issues in a follow-up study that focuses on the actual on-and-off
rates of the peptide and antibody reagents in combination with
the wild-type Env protein and the typical GI
A-S
KY mutant. This
may also provide novel kinetic insight into the mechanism of
HIV-1 membrane fusion. In fact, a recent study indicated that
the 2F5 and 4E10 antibodies are also rather special in that
they recognize a fusion-intermediate state of gp41 (
8).
We proposed several possible mechanistic models for the unique T20-dependent replication phenotype (3). First, it could be envisaged that the T20 peptide is actively involved in the formation of the 6-helix bundle structure of the GIA-SKY Env. Thus, the wild-type T20 peptide could replace one or multiple mutant HR2 domains to enable the formation of this fusion-competent structure. This scenario can now be rejected, as structurally unrelated peptides and antibodies are also able to activate the GIA-SKY virus. Another scenario suggests that T20 dependence may mimic the process of enhancement of virus infectivity that is often observed in antibody neutralization experiments. However, such enhancement does not explain the nearly complete lack of infectivity of the GIA-SKY mutant in the absence of T20. Thus, the results presented in this study and a recent virus evolution study (1) exclusively support the proposed mechanistic model of drug dependence that is illustrated in Fig. 1C.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Trimeris and Roche for providing us with the T20 and
T1249 peptides, Merck Research Laboratories (Michael Miller)
for providing us with the D5-IgG1 antibody, and Min Lu for generously
providing us with the C34 and 5-helix peptide as well as the
2F5 and 4E10 antibodies. We thank Rogier Sanders for critically
reading the manuscript and Stef Heynen for technical assistance.
This research was supported in part by grant 2005021 from the AIDS Fund (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Experimental Virology, Department of Medical Microbiology, Center for Infection and Immunity Amsterdam (CINIMA), Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-20-5664822. Fax: 31-20-6916531. E-mail:
b.berkhout{at}amc.uva.nl 
Published ahead of print on 14 May 2008. 

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Journal of Virology, August 2008, p. 7735-7740, Vol. 82, No. 15
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02524-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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