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Journal of Virology, December 2008, p. 12265-12279, Vol. 82, No. 24
0022-538X/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01615-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
,
Frédéric Pont,4,
Céline Monnet,1,2,
Emmanuelle Mouton,3
Lucile Lamouroux,1,2
Bernard Monsarrat,3 and
Daniel Gonzalez-Dunia1,2*
INSERM U563, Toulouse, France,1 Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France,2 Laboratoire de Protéomique et Spectrométrie de Masse des Biomolécules, Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, CNRS UMR 5089, Toulouse, France,3 INSERM, Institut Claude de Préval, IFR30, Plateau Technique d'Interactions et Profils d'Expression Protéiques, Toulouse, France4
Received 29 July 2008/ Accepted 23 September 2008
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Infection with Borna disease virus (BDV) represents an ideal paradigm for the investigation of the neuronal consequences due to the persistence of a noncytolytic virus. BDV is an enveloped virus with a nonsegmented, negative-strand RNA genome (13, 44). BDV infects a wide variety of mammals (35), possibly including humans (6, 29). Infected hosts develop a large spectrum of neurological disorders, ranging from immune-mediated diseases to behavioral alterations without inflammation (35, 41), reminiscent of symptoms observed in certain human neuropsychiatric diseases (28). These neurobehavioral manifestations reflect the selective localization of BDV in the CNS. The virus targets mainly neurons of the cortex and hippocampus (20, 23), which governs many cognitive and behavioral functions (8).
One striking feature of BDV infection is its noncytolytic strategy of replication (20) in vivo and in vitro. Indeed, many studies using cells infected with BDV, either primary neuronal cells or established cell lines, have repeatedly shown that infection proceeds without any overt phenotype or impaired survival (reviewed in reference 21). However, when appropriately stimulated, BDV-infected neurons exhibit selective impairment in signaling pathways that are important for proper neuronal functioning and neuronal communication (21, 22, 26, 34, 50, 51). Together, these results imply that some biochemical pathways in neurons must actually be targeted by the infection, even at steady state, but have not been detected with the resolution of the phenotypic analyses performed so far. To address this question more thoroughly, an unbiased and comprehensive analysis of BDV-infected neurons was needed.
The recent development of improved proteomic methods has greatly enhanced our ability to assess cellular changes at a global scale, and these methods are very well suited for the characterization of the diversity of cellular responses to a virus (37, 45). Here, we fractionated protein extracts from uninfected and BDV-infected primary cultures of neurons using two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). Thereafter, the identity of the proteins present in fractions differing in profile between samples was determined by nano-liquid chromatography (nanoLC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Even using such a proteomic approach, we did not detect any change in the expression of markers for neuronal stress, apoptosis, or neurodegeneration, further confirming the remarkable noncytolytic replication of BDV. Nevertheless, we identified changes at different levels that provide new clues to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the selective interference with neuronal plasticity and remodeling, which characterizes BDV persistence.
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Preparation of the protein samples. Proteins were extracted from neurons according to the ProteomeLab PF2D protocol (Beckman Coulter, Fullerton, CA). Samples were first desalted on a PD-10 Sephadex G-25 gel filtration column with a 5-kDa cutoff (Amersham Biosciences, Piscataway, NJ) and eluted using chromatofocusing start buffer. Protein concentrations were determined in duplicate using the BCA protein assay (Thermo Scientific, Pierce, Rockford, IL).
Protein fractionation by 2D-LC. Control and infected neuronal protein samples were fractionated using the ProteomeLab PF2D protein fractionation system (Beckman Coulter), which consists of two high-performance liquid chromatographs, two UV detectors, an autosampler, and a fraction collector. The first-dimension fractionation of PF2D, which consists of chromatofocusing, was performed on a high-performance chromatofocusing first-dimension column (250 by 2.1 mm; Beckman Coulter). The pH gradient was generated using Start buffer (pH 8.5) and eluent buffer (pH 4), both included in the ProteomeLab PF2D kit. The chromatofocusing column was first equilibrated with start buffer at pH 8.5 before being loaded with 2 ml (3 mg) of the protein extract. The flowthrough was collected, and after a stable baseline was established, a pH gradient was generated by infusing the eluent buffer with a constant flow rate of 0.2 ml/min, allowing the elution of proteins according to their pIs. The proteins with a pI of <4 were finally eluted by washing the column with 1 M NaCl. The second dimension of PF2D used reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 column (4.6 by 33 mm; Beckman Coulter) packed with 1.5-µm nonporous silica and kept at 50°C in a heated column jacket. The fractions from the first dimension were injected in the column and eluted using a water-acetonitrile gradient at 0.75 ml/min. The second-dimension fractions were collected in 96-well plates and stored at –80°C until use. The second-dimension fractions differing in profile between control and infected samples were selected for MS analysis. This selection was carried out by performing a peak-to-peak analysis of the UV chromatograms. After subtraction of the baseline, a peak was selected if it was present only in one sample (with a minimal value of 0.02 arbitrary units [AU]) or if its difference in intensity between samples was at least twofold.
Treatment of fractions for proteomic analysis. Selected fractions were adjusted with variable volumes of HPLC-grade water (depending on the gradient of pH and the water-to-acetonitrile ratio) to ensure the same volume of water in all samples before evaporation. Fractions were concentrated using a SpeedVac concentrator (Jouan, Saint-Herblain, France) at 40°C until there was 50 µl left. One M NH4HCO3 and 10 mM dithiothreitol were added to the concentrate (to final concentrations of 100 mM and 1 mM, respectively) to neutralize the concentrate to pH 7.8, and samples were reduced for 10 min at 60°C. Sequencing-grade modified trypsin (Promega, Charbonnières, France) was added (100 ng for peaks of <0.05 AU and 200 ng for the others) and incubated for 24 h at 37°C. Next, fractions were completely evaporated in a SpeedVac concentrator at room temperature, and plates were stored at –80°C prior to MS analysis.
nanoLC-MS/MS analysis. The resulting peptides were analyzed by nanoLC-MS/MS using an LC Packings system (Dionex, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) coupled to a QStar XL mass spectrometer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Dried peptides were reconstituted in 14 µl of solvent A' (5% acetonitrile [ACN] and 0.05% trifluoroacetic acid in HPLC-grade water), and 5 µl was loaded onto a precolumn (300-µm internal diameter [ID] by 5 mm) using the Switchos unit of the LC Packings system, delivering a flow rate of 20 µl/min of solvent A'. After desalting for 7 min, the precolumn was switched online with the analytical column (75-µm-ID by 15-cm PepMap C18 column) equilibrated in 95% solvent A (5% ACN and 0.1% formic acid in HPLC-grade water) and 5% solvent B (95% ACN and 0.1% formic acid in HPLC-grade water). Peptides were eluted from the precolumn to the analytical column and then to the mass spectrometer with a gradient from 5 to 50% solvent B for 60 min. The QStar XL mass spectrometer was operated in information-dependent acquisition mode with Analyst QS 1.1 software. MS and MS/MS data were recorded continuously with a 7-s cycle time. Within each cycle, MS data were accumulated for 1 s over the mass range m/z 300 to 2,000, followed by two MS/MS acquisitions of 3 s each on the two most abundant ions over the mass range m/z 80 to 2,000. Dynamic exclusion was employed within 60 s to prevent the repetitive selection of the same ions. Collision energies were automatically adjusted according to the charge state and mass value of the precursor ions. The MS-to-MS/MS switch threshold was set to 10 counts.
Database search and data analysis. Mascot server software (version 2.2.0; Matrix Science, London, United Kingdom) was used to perform database searches in batch mode (Mascot Daemon) with all the wiff files acquired for each plate well. A peak list was created for each fraction analyzed, and individual Mascot searches were performed for each fraction. Data were searched against a homemade database containing mammal entries of the Sprot-Trembl_20071010 database (240,989 sequences) in which the six protein sequences from BDV were added manually. Oxidation of methionines was set as a variable modification for all Mascot searches. The specificity of trypsin digestion was set for cleavage after K or R, and two missed trypsin cleavage sites were allowed. Mascot results were parsed, and protein hits were automatically validated with the in-house-developed software Mascot File Parsing and Quantification (MFPaQ), version 3.0.4 (7). From all the validated result files corresponding to the wells of one specific PF2D plate, MFPaQ was used to generate a unique, nonredundant list of proteins found in different wells by creating clusters of protein groups (composed of all the protein sequences matching the same set of peptides). The lists obtained for each plate can be found in the supplemental material. A limited search was performed on specific fractions to study the impact of BDV on posttranslational modifications of histone 2B (H2B). Methylation, dimethylation, trimethylation, and acetylation of lysines and arginines were set as new variable modifications for this Mascot search.
Bioinformatic pathway analysis. All identified proteins were evaluated by Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA; Ingenuity Systems, Mountain View, CA). IPA constructs hypothetical protein interaction clusters on the basis of a regularly updated and a very large curated database that consists of millions of individual relationships between proteins collected from the literature. This database also integrates a broad range of systems biology including protein function, cellular localization, and small-molecule and disease interrelationships. For each identified network, IPA computes a p score (defined as –log10(P value) determined by Fischer's exact test) according to the fit of that network to the inputted proteins.
Antibodies and reagents. We used mouse monoclonal antibodies to acetylated tubulin (clone 6-11B1), beta-tubulin (clone SDL.3D10; Sigma-Aldrich), growth-associated protein 43 (GAP-43) (clone GAP-7B10; Sigma-Aldrich), synapsin 1 (clone 46.1; Synaptic Systems), and tyrosinated tubulin (clone TUB-1A2; Sigma-Aldrich). We also used rabbit polyclonal antibodies to methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) (kindly provided by Z. Zhou and M. E. Greenberg, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA); rabbit antibodies specific for synapsin 1 phosphorylated by CaMK II at site 3 (clone RU19) or by PKA and CaMK I at site 1 (clone G257), provided by P. Greengard (The Rockefeller University, New York, NY); stathmin (kindly provided by A. Sobel, Paris, France); Tau (Sigma-Aldrich); and Y-box protein 1 (YB1) (Cell Signaling Technology). All other antibodies were described previously (26). For F-actin staining, we used fluorescein isothiocyanate-coupled phalloidin (Sigma-Aldrich). For cytoskeleton depolymerization assays, we used nocodazole (diluted at 10 µg/ml in dimethyl sulfoxide; Sigma-Aldrich). Paclitaxel (Taxol; Sigma-Aldrich) was diluted at 10 µM in dimethyl sulfoxide.
Western blot analysis. Cell extracts and Western blots were performed as described previously (26). Briefly, equivalent amounts of cell lysates were separated by electrophoresis using 10% Bis-Tris Nu-PAGE gels (Invitrogen) and then transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes (Hybond-C Extra; Amersham Biosciences). After blocking (Li-Cor blocking buffer or Tris-buffered saline containing 5% nonfat dry milk), membranes were incubated with primary antibodies. Secondary fluorescent antibodies used in experiments were as follows: IRDye 800CW goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin G (Li-Cor, ScienceTec, Les Ulis, France) and Alexa Fluor 680 goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G (Invitrogen). Laser scanning and quantitative analyses of the blots were performed using the Odyssey infrared imaging system (Li-Cor).
Recovery assays after cytoskeleton depolymerization and immunofluorescence analysis. In order to reversibly depolymerize the neuronal cytoskeleton network, neuronal cultures were incubated for 1 h in medium containing 10 µg/ml nocodazole. After being rinsed three times in fresh medium, cultures were again incubated at 37°C for the indicated time intervals to allow the recovery of the cytoskeleton network. Thereafter, cells were incubated for 5 min in PHEM buffer [60 mM piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (PIPES), 25 mM HEPES, 10 mM EGTA, 2 mM MgCl2 (pH 6.9)] containing 10 mM paclitaxel at 37°C to remove unpolymerized tubulin and rinsed three times in warm PHEM buffer before fixation. Cultures were fixed by incubation for 20 min in warm 4% paraformaldehyde and 5 mM paclitaxel diluted in PHEM. Thereafter, samples were processed for immunofluorescence analysis as described previously (26).
Image acquisition and analysis. Images were acquired using a confocal microscope (Axiovert 200 M; Zeiss, Le Pecq, France) equipped with a Leica DC 200 camera and either a 20x or a Plan-Apochromat 63x/1.40 oil objective (Zeiss). Acquisition and analysis were carried out using Zeiss-LSM 3.2 software.
RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis. Total RNA was isolated from primary infected or control neuronal cultures using the RNeasy minikit (Qiagen, Courtaboeuf, France). Three to 10 µg of total RNA was primed with 2 µg of oligo(dT) (GE Healthcare, Vélizy, France) in the presence of 40 U of RNaseOUT recombinant RNase inhibitor (Invitrogen) and reverse transcribed with Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase RNase H minus (300 U; Promega), according to the manufacturer's instructions. cDNAs were stored at –20°C until use.
Quantitative PCR. Transcript levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), phospholemman (FXYD1), and the housekeeping gene HPRT were quantified using real-time quantitative PCR (ABI Prism 7000; Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems) and Sybr green DNA dye from a Sybr green I reaction system (Eurogentec, Angers, France). Primer sequences were as follows: forward primer 5'-CCCAGTCTCTGCCTAGATCAAATGG-3' and reverse primer 5'-ACTCGCACGCCTTCAGTGAGAA-3' for BDNF (32), forward primer 5'-AGTGCAGAAGCTCCGCAGGAA-3' and reverse primer 5'-TACCGCCTGCGGGTGGACAGA-3' (14) for FXYD1, and forward primer 5'-TGTTGGATACAGGCCAGACTTTGT-3' and reverse primer 5'-TCCACTTTCGCTGATGACACA-3' (53) for HPRT.
In each case, sense and antisense primers (300 nM) were used in a final reaction mixture volume of 25 µl. Real-time quantitative PCR was performed according to the manufacturer's protocol, except for the hybridization of BDNF primers, for which a two-step hybridization was done at 55°C for 30 s and 60°C for 30 s. Quantitative analysis of the data was performed using the relative quantification (
CT) model, where the 
CT is the difference between the
CT of the BDV-infected sample and that of the corresponding control sample.
CT is the difference between the threshold cycle (CT) of the target gene and the CT of the HPRT gene.
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FIG. 1. Experimental outline. Whole-cell extracts were prepared from control and BDV-infected primary cultures of rat cortical neurons. Protein extracts were fractionated using automated 2D-LC, and chromatographic profiles of each fraction were compared between samples. Fractions differing in profile were selected and digested by trypsin before being subjected to identification by nanoLC-MS/MS. dpi, days postinfection.
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FIG. 2. Comparative analysis of the chromatograms between control and BDV-infected neuronal extracts. (A) Reproducibility of the pH gradients during the first dimension of automated 2D-LC. The pH gradients of the chromatofocusing steps for control (blue curves) and BDV-infected (red curves) samples as well as their chromatographic profiles are displayed on the same graph to illustrate the overlap between the two fractionation experiments. (B) Overview of the protein maps obtained after fractionation. The x axis of the 2D-LC map displays fractionation according to pI values, and the y axis displays increasing hydrophobicity. Each UV peak is represented by a horizontal band, whose intensity is proportional to the height of the peak. The center map is a differential map corresponding to a point-to-point subtraction of corresponding lanes from the control (red) and BDV-infected (green) maps, revealing fractions presenting differently expressed proteins between samples. (C) Representative examples of the comparison of 2D-LC chromatograms. Two chromatograms obtained after second-dimension fractionation using first-dimension fractions 20 (top) and 13 (bottom) are shown. Fraction 20 is representative of a chromatogram profile that was very similar between BDV and control samples and for which no fraction was selected for subsequent protein identification by MS. Fraction 13 is representative of a profile for which significant differences were noted. In this case, fractions collected between retention times of 17 and 21 min were selected for MS/MS analysis. (D) Schematic overview of the main neuronal proteome changes identified following infection of primary neurons with BDV. Changes were arbitrarily regrouped into three main functional categories, for which several examples of proteins are given.
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TABLE 1. Database of identified proteins
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FIG. 3. Expression of GAP-43 and synapsin 1 is impaired following BDV infection. (A) Western blot analysis of neuronal extracts from control and BDV-infected cultures using antibodies specific for GAP-43, total synapsin 1, phosphosynapsin 1 (site 3, specific for CaMK II, and site 1, specific for PKA and CaMK I), and beta-tubulin for normalization. Results are representative of four independent experiments. (B) Quantification of the Western blot signals using the Odyssey imager. Due to the intrinsic variability between neuronal cultures, results were expressed as their change compared to control neurons that were arbitrarily set to 1 in all cases. **, P < 0.05 by paired t test.
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FIG. 4. BDV infection interferes with localization of F actin at contact nodes between neurites. Shown is confocal microscopic imaging of control (top) and BDV-infected (bottom) cortical neurons triply stained for F actin using phalloidin-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) (green), the neuronal marker Tau (blue), and the tyrosinated form of polymerized tubulin (TYR) to stain microtubule structures (red). Original magnification, x630. An enlarged view of the highlighted white square of the triple-merge image is displayed on the two right pictures (fluorescence and bright field). At this higher magnification, note that the punctuated phalloidin staining colocalizes with contact nodes between neurites in control neurons and is lost following BDV infection.
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FIG. 5. Infection with BDV delays recovery of the microtubule network following depolymerization with nocodazole. (A) BDV impairs stathmin expression. Shown is a Western blot analysis of neuronal extracts from control and BDV-infected cultures using antibodies specific for the microtubule-associated protein stathmin and beta-tubulin for normalization. Data are representative of two independent experiments. (B) Quantification of the Western blot signals using the Odyssey imager. **, P < 0.05 by paired t test. (C and D) Analysis of the microtubule network recovery kinetics following nocodazole-induced depolymerization. Neurons were treated (+) or not (–) with nocodazole and processed for immunofluorescence analysis at different times following washout of nocodazole. (C) Confocal microscopy imaging of staining using an antibody specific for the stable acetylated form of tubulin (ACE) (red). (D) Confocal microscopy imaging of staining using an antibody specific for the microtubule-associated protein Tau (green). Note the incomplete recolonization of the microtubule network by Tau even after 1 h of recovery time. Original magnification, x400.
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BDV impacts the regulation of mRNA expression in neurons. We were particularly interested in the identification of changes in the transcriptional repressor MeCP2. MeCP2 is a DNA-binding protein that selectively binds methylated DNA CpG dinucleotides and plays important roles in neuronal physiology (4). MeCP2 is expressed during postnatal mammalian brain development and is a marker for neuronal maturity. MeCP2 mutations have been shown to be responsible for Rett syndrome, a severe mental retardation disease associated with defects in synaptic plasticity. MeCP2 interacts with YB1, a principal component of messenger ribonucleoprotein particles that controls multiple steps of mRNA processing, including the selection of alternative splice sites (55). Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses (Fig. 6A and data not shown) revealed that MeCP2 levels were significantly reduced upon infection with BDV. Conversely, levels of the different YB1 isoforms were increased in BDV-infected neurons (Fig. 6B), a result consistent with the proposed model of interaction between MeCP2 and YB1 (4). MeCP2 regulation of neuronal differentiation is mediated through chromatin remodeling and its action on multiple target genes, most of which are still unknown. BDNF and FXYD1 are two genes repressed by MeCP2 repression (14, 32, 59). Consistent with the reduced MeCP2 levels detected in BDV-infected neurons, we demonstrated that mRNA levels for both BDNF and FXYD1 were significantly increased upon infection (Fig. 6C).
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FIG. 6. Infection with BDV modifies the expression pattern of the MeCP2 and YB1 proteins as well as that of MeCP2 target genes. (A) Western blot analysis of neuronal extracts from control and BDV-infected cultures using antibodies specific for MeCP2, YB1, and beta-tubulin for normalization. Results are representative of four to six independent experiments. (B) Quantification of the signals using the Odyssey imager. Due to the intrinsic variability between neuronal cultures, results were expressed as their change compared to control neurons that were arbitrarily set to 1 in all cases. ***, P < 0.0; *, P < 0.1 (by paired t test). (C) Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR analysis of the expression of MeCP2 target genes. Levels of BDNF and phospholemman (FXYD1) transcripts were determined using total RNA extracted from control and BDV-infected neurons. Transcript levels were normalized to HPRT. Results are displayed as means ± standard errors of the means for six independent experiments. ***, P < 0.01; *, P < 0.1 (by paired t test). (D) Representative example of the signaling network/function analyses performed using IPA. The list of identified proteins was analyzed using IPA tools as described in the text. The network shown in the figure had the highest score (score of 49) and included 30 focus proteins. The legend for each node shape and arrow is indicated at the bottom. Focus proteins were identified mainly in BDV-infected neuronal extracts, whereas others were found mainly in control neurons.
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Histone modifications upon BDV infection. The analysis of the 2D-LC chromatograms revealed important changes for a group of peaks identified in two nonadjacent fractions of the control and BDV-infected protein extracts (Fig. 7A). MS identified this differently expressed set of peaks as corresponding to H2B. Moreover, using specific fragment ions as previously described (56), MS/MS analysis of the H2B peptide spectra revealed unambiguously that H2B acetylations on Lys-5 (Fig. 7B) and Lys-20 (data not shown) were not observed following BDV infection. As a matter of fact, a trypsin miscleavage in Lys-5 allowed us to identify both the modified and unmodified peptides in control and BDV-infected samples, clearly showing that Lys-5 acetylation was absent in this selected fraction (Fig. 7B).
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FIG. 7. BDV infection affects H2B posttranslational modifications. (A) Chromatographic profiles of BDV (black line) and control (gray line) samples for 2D-LC fractions 11 and 14. Differences in profiles between samples (square) were identified by nanoLC-MS/MS as being due to H2B. (B) Analysis of MS/MS spectra from a specific peptide sequence of histone H2B reveals differences in posttranslational modifications. The identified peptide sequences are indicated in the upper corner of the spectra. (Top) MS/MS spectrum of the peptide with m/z 567.81 corresponding to [M + 2H]2+ (control). The peptide was determined to be 1PEPAKacSAPAPK11, where lysine 5 is acetylated. (Bottom) MS/MS spectrum of the peptide with m/z at 364.85 corresponding to [M + 3H]3+ (BDV). The peptide was determined to be 1PEPAKSAPAPK11 from histone H2B, where lysine 5 is unmodified. The immonium ion at m/z 126.08 indicated the presence of -acetyllysine and was observed only on the control peptide (top). Acetylation was assigned on Lys-5 because ion y7 at m/z 740.41 was shifted by 42 Da in a mass spectrum (top) (control), whereas y7 at m/z 698.43 (bottom) (BDV) showed no mass shift.
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Previous studies aimed at analyzing global cellular changes upon BDV infection used microarrays and detected cellular changes at the transcriptional level (30, 52). Although we confirmed the impact of BDV infection on B-FABP expression, there was little overlap with data from those previous transcriptome reports. Indeed, changes observed at the mRNA level do not always correspond to changes at the protein level (46). In addition, previous studies were based on data from total extracts prepared from infected brains and could not discriminate between the impact of BDV on neurons and that on glial cells that also become infected at later time points. Here, the use of neuron-rich cultures allowed us to gain further insight into the impact of BDV persistence on neurons. Nevertheless, it is likely that many of the events taking place in the brain of BDV-infected rats are the result of a complex interplay between the virus and different cell types, including glial cells such as astrocytes and microglial cells, which may not be recreated in the primary cortical neuron cultures.
Although this study provides considerable new information about the neuronal proteome changes upon BDV infection, it is clear that we may have not yet uncovered the totality of these changes. Indeed, we selected peaks for which a difference could be detected upon analysis of the 2D-LC chromatograms. Therefore, we may have missed the protein changes that did not result in any strong modification of the chromatogram either because they were below the limit of detection or because they were hidden by other highly represented and unchanged proteins present in the same fraction.
Damage to the CNS cytoskeleton is a hallmark of different viral infections and is also observed in many neurodegenerative diseases (36, 58). Although there was no alteration of the neuronal cytoskeleton following BDV infection, in sharp contrast to other neurotropic viral systems, we identified changes in many actin- and microtubule-binding proteins, suggesting a global "rigidity" of the network, i.e., the inability to respond or adapt when requested. Indeed, the depolymerization and recovery assays described herein clearly showed that BDV leads to impaired cytoskeleton dynamics. The most classical way to demonstrate such a phenotype is to use growing neurons during the first days after plating and to monitor the process of axonal sprouting, as has been done to demonstrate the key role of proteins such as stathmins in the neuronal growth cone (43). However, this kind of approach is not feasible with BDV, as infected cells produce extremely low levels of infectious viral particles. Thus, BDV stocks have usually low titers, and a significant number of infected cells is observed only after 6 to 8 days, after the process of axonal growth in vitro is nearly completed. In any event, given the complexity of the functions controlled by cytoskeleton-binding proteins and their possible link with other identified proteins, such as synapsin or MARCKS, it is plausible that the identified changes may impact neuronal function significantly and lead to long-term plasticity impairment.
BDV has the property to replicate and transcribe in the nucleus of infected cells, a feature that distinguishes BDV from other members of the order Mononegavirales (12). Consequently, BDV has established a strategy for persistence that allows the long-term retention of its genome packed in viral ribonucleoprotein complexes within the nucleus. Moreover, BDV must also ensure an efficient nuclear export and transfer of viral ribonucleoproteins along neuronal processes to permit viral transmission to neighboring cells. Most of the mechanisms underlying these events are still largely unknown (48). In this study, we identified many changes in nuclear proteins and proteins involved in RNA transport in neurons that may provide clues for future studies. Indeed, proteins such as YB1, HuC, La, or NoNo play important roles in mRNA processing and/or the transport of RNA granules in neuronal processes (40). In addition, the identified changes in histone proteins may reflect the consequences of BDV persistence in the nucleus on the cellular chromatin. Indeed, viruses that persist in the cell nucleus have evolved diverse mechanisms to manipulate cellular chromatin to ensure efficient viral genome survival and propagation (33). Thus, it is likely that the observed modifications in the histone acetylation pattern may induce important changes in the pattern of expression of the infected neurons. Histone proteins and their accompanying posttranslational modifications have received much attention for their ability to affect chromatin structure and consequently to regulate gene expression. The acetylation and methylation of histones are usually related to transcriptionally active chromatin (27) and are best described for H3 and H4. Interestingly, the activation of cellular histone deacetylases and the concomitant deacetylation of histones H3 and H4 have been demonstrated for many persistent viruses, including the retroviruses human immunodeficiency virus and human T-cell leukemia virus or the herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (42, 49, 54). BDV infection may use a similar mechanism but focused on H2B, a hypothesis that will require further investigation. Such changes in histones and their consequences on chromatin structure may also explain the decreased levels of expression of transcriptional repressors such as MeCP2 (4).
One of the major challenges resulting from the proteomic profiling of the virus-cell interaction lies in trying to extrapolate from a global analysis to gain new insight into viral pathogenesis. This issue is complicated by the complexity of the identified proteins and the difficulty in organizing them in a somehow hierarchical manner. The use of IPA allowed us to gain clues about possible interrelationships and revealed that MeCP2 and YB1 could play an important role. Given the drastic consequences of any qualitative or quantitative change in MeCP2 expression (4), we consider the reported changes in MeCP2 following BDV infection, together with the accompanying modification in the mRNA expression of target genes, to be highly relevant. We hypothesize that BDV replication could lead to the genetic reprogramming of infected neurons through its action on cellular chromatin. This, in turn, would affect key transcriptional repressors and impair the ability of the neuron to respond to certain stimuli. Further studies will be required to formally test this hypothesis.
We thank Z. Zhou and M. E. Greenberg (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA), P. Greengard (The Rockefeller University, New York, NY), and A. Sobel, (INSERM U839, Paris, France) for their gifts of antibodies; the Genopôle and Canceropôle Grand-Sud-Ouest for providing access to the proteomic platforms; S. Allart for expert assistance at the IFR30 cellular imaging platform; and R. Liblau, A. Saoudi, C. Prat, C. Duval, S. Boullier, L. Mars, and M. Lazarczyk for critical reading of the manuscript.
Published ahead of print on 1 October 2008. ![]()
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jvi.asm.org/. ![]()
A.S. and F.P. contributed equally to this work and should be considered joint authors. ![]()
Present address: Millegen, Toulouse, France. ![]()
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