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Journal of Virology, August 2008, p. 7752-7756, Vol. 82, No. 15
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01003-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Vpx Is Critical for Reverse Transcription of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Genome in Macrophages
Mikako Fujita,1
Masami Otsuka,1
Masami Miyoshi,2
Boonruang Khamsri,2
Masako Nomaguchi,2 and
Akio Adachi2*
Department of Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 862-0973, Japan,1
Department of Virology, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan2
Received 8 May 2007/
Accepted 8 May 2008

ABSTRACT
The abilities of wild-type and
vpx-defective human immunodeficiency
virus type 2 (HIV-2) clones to synthesize viral DNA in human
monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) and lymphocytic cells were
comparatively and quantitatively evaluated. While the
vpx-defective
mutant directed the synthesis of viral DNA comparably to the
wild-type virus and normally in lymphocytic cells, no appreciable
viral DNA was detected in MDMs infected with the mutant. To
substantiate this finding and to determine whether there is
some specific region(s) in Vpx crucial for viral DNA synthesis
in MDMs, we generated a series of site-specific point mutants
of
vpx and examined their phenotypes. The resultant five mutants,
with no infectivity for MDMs, showed, without exception, the
same defect as the
vpx-defective mutant. Our results here clearly
demonstrated that the entire Vpx protein is critical for reverse
transcription of the HIV-2 genome in human MDMs.

TEXT
Viruses of the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) group
carry a
vpx gene that encodes virion-associated Vpx protein.
Vpx is an accessory viral protein and is completely unnecessary
and dispensable for virus replication in established cell lines
and primary lymphocyte cells prepared from peripheral blood
mononuclear cells (
10,
21,
25). However, in human monocyte-derived
macrophages (MDMs), the
vpx-defective viruses do not grow at
all (
6,
20,
21,
25). Because Vpx is specifically incorporated
into virions by association with Gag-p6 protein in significant
quantities (
1,
11,
12,
24), it has been believed that Vpx has
a specific and early functional role at the Env-independent
postentry replication step. In fact, there have been some articles
directly addressing the early function of Vpx in the life cycle
of HIV-2. Worthy of note, one report has shown that Vpx is dispensable
for reverse transcription of the viral RNA genome but important
for nuclear import of the viral preintegration complex in MDMs
(
6). But in that study (
6), a unique simian immunodeficiency
virus (SIV) isolated from the sooty mangabey (SIV
SMPBj1.9),
which causes an acute fatal disease in pig-tailed monkeys (
5),
was used to determine the defect of
vpx mutants in simian MDMs.
Another paper has described results similar to those mentioned
above, obtained for a U937 cell line growth arrested by mimosine
treatment (
20). Furthermore, in both studies (
6,
20), the conclusions
were based on the data obtained from rather qualitative PCR
analysis. Therefore, quite surprisingly, virtually no studies
focusing on the functional role of HIV-2 Vpx in human MDMs with
clear and convincing data have been published yet. In this study,
we have performed an extensive mutational functional analysis
by quantitative assays of HIV-2 Vpx in human MDMs. We demonstrate
here, in contrast to the previously published conclusions, that
Vpx is critical for reverse transcription of the HIV-2 genome
in human MDMs.
We first evaluated the extent of viral DNA synthesis by a vpx-defective mutant at the postentry step in human MDMs by using HSC-F cells (3, 4) as a cell control (21). The mutant used was derived from a well-characterized and widely distributed molecular clone (13, 14, 21) for easy scientific comparison. Infection of human MDMs by virus samples from 293T cells (17) transfected with proviral clones was very much inefficient and gave ambiguous data. To obtain reproducible quantitative results, we conducted the assay as follows. Virus samples (pseudotype viruses) were prepared from 293T cells cotransfected with an expression vector of the vesicular stomatitis virus G protein (pCMV-G) (23) and an env-defective proviral clone (pGL-Ns) (21) for the wild type (WT) or an env- and vpx-defective clone (pGL-Ns/St) (21) for the vpx mutant and inoculated into HSC-F and MDM cells. On day 2 postinfection, DNAs were prepared from these infected cells and subjected to real-time PCR analysis using appropriate primer pairs to detect the late reverse transcription product (U5/5'-end noncoding region) in the cytoplasm and the two-long terminal repeat (two-LTR) circle in the cell nucleus. As is clear in Fig. 1, a major replication defect in HSC-F cells of the vpx-defective mutant was noticed at the nuclear import process of viral DNA, in good agreement with our previous report (21). By contrast, the mutant was unable to synthesize viral DNA in MDMs, as judged by the absence of the late reverse transcription product, indicating that Vpx is crucial for reverse transcription of the viral RNA genome in a cell type-dependent manner. The same experiments were repeated, using MDMs from different individuals, with perfectly reproducible outcomes. These results prompted us to do a systemic mutational analysis of HIV-2 Vpx in MDMs to dissect its function in the virus replication cycle.
As shown in Fig.
2, 19 point mutations were introduced into
scattered regions of WT
vpx of an infectious HIV-2 molecular
clone designated pGL-AN (
13) by using a QuikChange site-directed
mutagenesis kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA). To determine the
target amino acids for mutation, amino acids that are well conserved
among various HIV-2 isolates were carefully selected. In addition,
since the 5' region of
vpx encoding amino acids 1 to 58 of Vpx
was overlapping with
vif, care was taken not to change the amino
acids of WT Vif. The mutants thus constructed were introduced
into 293T cells, and all the mutants generated progeny virions
at a normal level, with MAGI infectivity (
15) comparable to
that of the WT virus, as expected (data not shown). Various
virus clones were then inoculated into human MDMs, and their
growth properties were determined. As shown in Fig.
2, out of
19 mutants, 9 grew more poorly than the WT virus and 5 did not
grow at all in MDMs. These results were confirmed in repeated
experiments, using MDMs from different individuals. The mutations
causing the noninfectious mutants (E15G, W24L, H39L, W49L, and
Q76A) were not clustered, suggesting that there may be no specific
regions or domains important for virus growth in MDMs.
There was a possibility that the damaged or noninfectious nature
of the 14 mutants (Fig.
2) is due to the lack of incorporation
of mutant Vpx proteins into virions. Initial attempts to detect
the expression of Vpx in transfected 293T cells by Western immunoblotting
were mostly unsuccessful, probably because the monoclonal and
polyclonal antibodies against Vpx used for detection were insensitive.
We therefore constructed a Vpx expression vector with a FLAG
tag for the five noninfectious mutants and monitored the transfected
293T cells for mutant Vpx by anti-FLAG antibody. A Vpx protein
level comparable to that for the WT clone was detected for each
mutant (Fig.
3A). We then determined whether the mutant Vpx
proteins were actually detectable in the progeny virions. We
previously reported that HIV-1 virion-associated viral proteins
can be examined after partial purification and concentration
of the virions by ultracentrifugation (
8). We applied the same
method to monitor Vpx in HIV-2 virions. As controls for this
experiment, we newly constructed two Gag-p6 site-specific mutants
(designated p6/3AS and p6/2A) from pGL-AN, which have mutated
amino acid sequences in Gag-p6 critical for the incorporation
of Vpx into virions (
1) (Fig.
3B). These two mutants were transfected
into 293T cells, and 3 days later, virion samples for Western
blot analysis were prepared as described above. As is clear
in Fig.
3B, the incorporation of Vpx into virions was not detected
at all for the two control mutants, as expected, indicating
that the procedure used for HIV-1 can be applicable for the
preparation of HIV-2 virions. Mutant virions prepared from transfected
293T cells by this method were then monitored for Vpx. As shown
in Fig.
3C, the virions of the P4L (WT growth properties), P10L
(intermediate growth properties [between those for WT and noninfectious
viruses]), and E15G (noninfectious virus) mutants (Fig.
2) contained
Vpx, like those of the WT virus. The presence of Vpx in virions
of all the other mutants shown in Fig.
2 was also verified by
this Western blot analysis. The percentages of specific virion
incorporation of Vpx (Vpx/Gag-p27 ratio, as quantified by immunoblotting
[Fig.
3C]) of the five noninfectious mutants (E15G, W24L, H39L,
W49L, and Q76A) relative to the WT level were 195 ± 16,
193 ± 14, 28 ± 6, 56 ± 6, and 103 ±
19, respectively. Of note, mutant N33S, having a low level of
virion-incorporated Vpx in this assay (14 ± 6), was still
somewhat infectious for MDMs (Fig.
2).
We finally evaluated the abilities of the five point mutants
noninfectious for MDMs (E15G, W24L, H39L, W49L, and Q76A) to
synthesize viral DNA in infected human MDMs. MDMs were infected
with the mutants (pseudotype viruses) as described above, and
the infected cells were similarly analyzed by real-time PCR
using two sets of primer pairs. As shown in Fig.
4, the reverse
transcription processes at early and late phases of the five
mutants were critically impaired, generating no significant
quantities of viral DNA in the cell nucleus. The Q76A mutant
appeared less attenuated for reverse transcription than the
other four mutants. The experiment for Fig.
4 was repeated extensively,
with reproducible results.
Based on the results described above, we concluded that Vpx
is crucially required for reverse transcription of the HIV-2
RNA genome in human MDMs. We also claim here, by our mutational
analysis, that a specific region or domain(s) in Vpx may not
be responsible for the Vpx activity shown in this report; rather,
the entire structure of Vpx is important. Of the five mutations
that completely abrogate viral infectivity in MDMs, H39L and
W49L might affect the stability of mutant proteins and give
the phenotype shown in Fig.
2 and
4. However, this was quite
unlikely, because the mutant proteins were stably expressed
in cells by a FLAG tag expression vector (Fig.
3). Furthermore,
the N33S mutant, which contains a smaller amount of Vpx in virions
than the H39L and W49L mutants, still retained viral infectivity.
In any case, our main conclusion, that the overall structure
of Vpx is crucial for reverse transcription of the HIV-2 genome
in human MDMs, is unchanged. Whether inactive or defective mutants
other than the five noninfectious mutants shown in Fig.
2 display
the defect in nuclear import of viral DNA is another intriguing
question to address, and this needs to be determined. Determination
of the subcellular localizations of these mutant Vpx proteins
could explain their biological differences, if there are any.
Our results described in this report are quite distinct from those previously published (6, 20) but not inconsistent. Clearly, we and they have used different experimental systems, including different methods for infection, virus clones, cell types, and methods for analysis of viral DNAs. Therefore, the data obtained could be different. Interestingly, one report has described reproducible reductions in the abundances of reverse transcription products in MDMs infected with vpx-defective mutants (6). In agreement with this and our results here, it has recently been demonstrated that Vpx of SIVMAC of the HIV-2 lineage plays an essential role for the reverse transcription process in human dendritic cells (9).
Determination of the molecular basis underlying the macrophage-specific requirement of Vpx for reverse transcription of the viral genome is virologically very important. In this regard, two recently published articles are quite provocative. Goujon et al. reported that Vpx may counteract a restriction factor present in human dendritic cells to escape the proteasome-mediated degradation pathway (9). Le Rouzic et al. showed that Vpx binds to DCAF1/VprBP, an adaptor molecule of the ubiquitin ligase complex (18). These findings have raised the possibility that there is a proteasome-dependent factor(s) in a certain cell type that suppresses reverse transcription. It is not unreasonable to assume that HIV-2 Vpx antagonizes such a factor, thus efficiently promoting viral replication. In addition, it has been well established that innate antiretroviral factors, such as TRIM5
and APOBEC3G/F, target the step of viral DNA synthesis. The association of HIV-2 Vpx with the reverse transcription process of the viral RNA genome needs to be biochemically proved to clarify the early events of HIV-2 replication precisely.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Kazuko Yoshida for editorial assistance. We are indebted
to the NIH AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program (catalog
no. 2609 and 2710) and the NIBSC Centralised Facility for AIDS
Reagents (repository reference ARP414) for antibodies.
This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (18390140) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (to A.A.) and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (19041051) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (to A.A.).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Virology, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima-shi, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan. Phone: 81-88-633-7078. Fax: 81-88-633-7080. E-mail:
adachi{at}basic.med.tokushima-u.ac.jp 
Published ahead of print on 21 May 2008. 

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Journal of Virology, August 2008, p. 7752-7756, Vol. 82, No. 15
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01003-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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