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Journal of Virology, April 2009, p. 3816-3825, Vol. 83, No. 8
0022-538X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.02562-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Annasara E. Lenman,
Lars Frängsmyr,
Cecilia Nyberg,
Mohamed Abdullahi, and
Niklas Arnberg*
Division of Virology, Department of Clinical Microbiology, the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine in Sweden (MIMS), Umeå University, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden
Received 12 December 2008/ Accepted 13 January 2009
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The complexity of Ad tropism is matched by the complexity and large number of receptors identified for these viruses. Previously, it was assumed that all Ads attach to target cells directly through an interaction between the knob domain of the viral fiber protein and specific cell surface receptors. It was suggested that the coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) acted as a cellular receptor for selected Ads belonging to species A, C, D, E, and F (7, 36, 41). Heparan sulfate (13, 40), integrins (6, 24, 48), major histocompatibility complex class I
2 (17), vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (11), and scavenger receptors (51) have been suggested as alternative receptors or coreceptors for species C Ads. Species B Ads and EKC-causing species D Ads do not use CAR as a receptor (2, 36). Instead, most species B Ads use CD46 as a cellular receptor (14, 26, 37) and the EKC-causing Ads use sialic acid (3, 4, 9).
Clearly, CAR is an efficient receptor for several Ads on nonpolarized cells that have been cultured in vitro. More recent research has, however, indicated that CAR is not expressed apically on polarized epithelial cells (46) that more closely mimic the in vivo situation. In addition, CAR is not expressed at all on primary T-lymphoid cells (10). Consequently, in the in vivo situation, it is likely that species C Ads can attach to and enter epithelial and T-lymphoid target cells independently of CAR; thus, the use of alternative receptors has been suggested (12).
Great efforts have been made to minimize the liver tropism obtained in vivo, by using gene therapy vectors based mainly on species C Ads. These efforts have attempted to disrupt binding to CAR, integrins, and/or heparan sulfate (8, 22, 23, 25, 28, 39, 40, 52); however, the results from these experiments have been inconsistent. Transduction of hepatocytes by species C-based vectors was recently suggested to depend on the binding of the most abundant structural protein of the virus particle, the hexon, to coagulation factor X (FX); the latter mediates indirect viral binding to cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans on hepatocytes (21, 42). Similar indirect binding of species C Ads to target cells can be achieved with dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) or lactoferrin (5, 19). DPPC is secreted by alveolar epithelial cells and lactoferrin is secreted by, for example, neutrophils into epithelial mucosa and tear fluid. Lactoferrin-mediated infection is specific for species C Ads and is associated with the ability of these Ads to cause tonsillitis, a feature that has not been observed for other Ads. As with FX, DPPC also binds to the hexon protein. Both coagulation factor IX (FIX) and lactoferrin have been suggested to interact with the fiber protein (19, 38), but in both of these cases, this still has to be confirmed.
Based on the above findings, we hypothesized that soluble components in various body fluids may be of more importance for the cellular binding and viral tropism of Ads than was previously recognized. Here we set out to investigate the effects of four different human body fluids—plasma, tear fluid, breast milk, and saliva—on Ad infection in cells that reflect the ocular and respiratory tropism of several Ads. We found that FIX and FX promote binding of species C Ads, and also species A Ads, to human epithelial cells. These coagulation factors are mainly present in blood. Various stimuli, however, including inflammatory responses, may trigger exudation of plasma components at the respiratory mucosa (34). Moreover, upon damage to tissue, various coagulation factors may be produced directly by respiratory epithelial cells (33), which suggests that coagulation factors may also be present outside the blood and, specifically, in tissues that are targeted by Ads. The data presented here indicate that coagulation factors may be of importance not only when Ads enter the circulation, i.e., when used as gene therapy vectors, but also during natural Ad infections in humans.
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Fluorescent focus assay. The effects of various body fluids and body fluid components on Ad infection of A549 and HCE cells were examined essentially as described previously (20). Virions were preincubated on ice with human body fluids (breast milk, tear fluid, plasma, or parotid saliva [all diluted 1:100]), FIX (Calbiochem, Darmstadt, Germany), FX or protein C (both from Haematologic Technologies Inc., Essex Junction, VT), FVII (Innovative Research Inc., Novi, MI), or complement components C3b, iC3b, C3dg, C4b, and C4dg (kindly provided by David Isenman, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Canada) for one hour before infection of cells. All coagulation factors were used at physiological concentrations: 5 µg/ml (FIX), 10 µg/ml (FX), and 0.5 µg/ml (FVII) (30, 35). The complement components were used at the following concentrations: 3 µg/ml (C3b), 10 µg/ml (iC3b), 5 µg/ml (C3dg), 4 µg/ml (C4dg), 2 µg/ml (C4b), and 4 µg/ml (protein C). In some cases, 10 mM EDTA (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) was included in the incubation mixture. Other exceptions to the method from reference 20 included the following: (i) serum-free medium was used throughout; (ii) prior to the addition of virions, the cells were washed three times with serum-free medium to remove traces of coagulation factors from the cell culture medium; (iii) the number of virions added to the wells was adapted to optimize quantification of each serotype; (iv) after incubating the cells with virions, the cells were washed three times with serum-free medium; (v) in some cases, cells were treated with heparinase I or II (Sigma) prior to incubation with virions; (vi) an extra wash step with water was included before mounting; (vii) the fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated swine anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G antibody was diluted 1:50 with one exception (Table 1; 1:100); and (viii) 20x magnification instead of 10x was used when analyzing samples by fluorescence microscopy.
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TABLE 1. Infection levels detected with dilutions of various body fluidsa
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Gene delivery assay. Ad5CMVeGFP vectors (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX) were incubated on ice for one hour with increasing concentrations of FIX or FX. Virion mixtures were added to subconfluent cultures of A549 or HCE cells in 24-well plates and incubated in Dulbecco's modified (high-glucose) essential medium [containing penicillin-streptomycin (PEST) and 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES), but no fetal calf serum] for one hour on ice. Unbound virions were removed by washing. The numbers of virions added to each cell type were adapted to optimize quantification by flow cytometry (104 virions per HCE cell, and 5 x 103 virions per A549 cell). After 44 h of incubation in supplemented hormone epithelial medium (containing PEST, HEPES, and 1% fetal calf serum) (1), the cells were harvested, washed, and resuspended in phosphate-buffered saline. The samples were analyzed using a FACScan flow cytometer and LYSIS II software (Becton Dickinson).
Statistical analysis. All experiments were performed at least three times (except the experiments presented in Table 1, which were performed twice) with duplicate samples in each experiment. Results are expressed as means ± standard deviations (SD), and statistical significance was evaluated by paired Student t tests. All P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant.
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FIX and FX promote Ad5 infection of epithelial cells. Several coagulation factors and/or complement components have been suggested to mediate transduction of Ad5 in hepatocytes (32, 38). We found that preincubation of Ad5 virions with complement components C3b, iC3b, C3dg, C4b, and C4dg (at physiological concentrations) did not promote infection of A549 cells (Fig. 1A) or HCE cells (Fig. 1B). However, at physiological concentrations, both FIX and FX promoted efficient infection of Ad5 in both A549 cells (fivefold) and HCE cells (60- to 100-fold). Coincubation with EDTA efficiently reduced the promoting effects of FIX and FX, indicating that divalent cations are of importance. Preincubation of Ad5 virions with FIX or FX promoted efficient virus binding to epithelial cells in a dose-dependent manner (Fig. 2A). The physiological concentration of FIX (5 µg/ml in blood) was required for efficient enhancement of Ad5 binding to A549 and HCE cells, whereas only 0.1 µg/ml of FX (corresponding to 1% of the physiological concentration of FX in blood) promoted Ad5 binding as efficiently as the physiological concentration (10 µg/ml in blood). Also, FIX and FX were both found to promote efficient transduction with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing, Ad5-based vectors in A549 and HCE cells in a dose-dependent manner (Fig. 2B). Thus, physiological concentrations of FIX and only 1% of the physiological concentration of FX were necessary or sufficient, respectively, to mediate an efficient enhancement in gene delivery. This suggested that the mechanism behind plasma-mediated binding of Ad5 to and infection of human respiratory or ocular epithelial cells could possibly involve FIX or, more likely, FX. We also tested whether the effect of coagulation factors was due to proteolytic cleavage of Ad5 virions by analyzing virions treated with or without coagulation factors with sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, but we found no evidence of proteolytic degradation (data not shown), thus supporting the previous findings of Parker et al. that this phenomenon is mediated by direct binding between the virus and FX or FIX, instead of being a result of the enzymatic modification of virions (32).
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FIG. 1. Physiological concentrations of FIX and FX promote efficient Ad5 infection of A549 cells (A) and HCE cells (B). Purified Ad5 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of coagulation factors, complement components, and/or 10 mM EDTA, as indicated, and then allowed to infect adherent cells. Forty-four hours postinfection, the cells were stained and quantified in a fluorescence microscope. The control infection level corresponds to the y axis value of 1. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control. The bars indicate comparisons between FIX and FIX-EDTA or between FX and FX-EDTA.
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FIG. 2. Coagulation factors promote efficient Ad5 binding and gene delivery to epithelial cells in a dose-dependent manner. (A) 35S-labeled CsCl-purified Ad5 virions were preincubated with or without increasing concentrations of FIX or FX and then incubated with A549 or HCE cells in suspension on ice for one hour. Unbound virions were removed by washing, and the cell-associated radioactivity was measured in a scintillation counter. (B) GFP-expressing, CsCl-purified Ad5 viruses were preincubated with or without increasing concentrations of FIX or FX and then incubated with adherent A549 or HCE cells on ice for one hour. Unbound viruses were removed by washing. The cells were incubated at 37°C for another forty-four hours. Next, GFP-expressing cells were quantified by flow cytometry. The control binding level corresponds to the y axis value of 1. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control; **, P of <0.01 versus control.
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FIG. 3. Cell surface heparan sulfate is required for FIX- and FX-mediated binding of Ad5 to and infection of epithelial cells. Ad5 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of FIX or FX and increasing concentrations of heparin and then allowed to bind to A549 cells (A) or HCE cells (B) or to infect A549 cells (C) or HCE cells (D). Alternatively, Ad5 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of FIX or FX and then allowed to bind to A549 or HCE cells (E and G) or to infect A549 or HCE cells (F and H) pretreated with increasing concentrations of heparinase I. In binding assays, cell-associated radioactivity was measured with a scintillation counter, whereas in infection assays, infectivity was quantified by fluorescence microscopy. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control; **, P of <0.01 versus control; ***, P of <0.001 versus control.
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FIG. 4. Low concentrations of FIX promote efficient binding of Ad31 to and infection of epithelial cells. Purified Ad31 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of complement components, or coagulation factors, with or without EDTA as indicated, and then allowed to infect adherent A549 cells (A) or HCE cells (B). Forty-four hours postinfection, infected cells were stained and quantified by fluorescence microscopy. (C) 35S-labeled, CsCl-purified Ad31 virions were preincubated with or without increasing concentrations of FIX and then incubated with A549 or HCE cells in suspension on ice for one hour. Unbound virions were removed by washing, and cell-associated radioactivity was measured with a scintillation counter. The control binding level corresponds to the y axis value of 1. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control; **, P of <0.01 versus control. The bars in panels A and B indicate comparisons between FIX and FIX-EDTA or between FX and FX-EDTA.
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FIG. 5. Preincubation of Ad31 with heparin inhibits FIX-mediated binding to and infection of epithelial cells. Ad31 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of FIX and increasing concentrations of heparin and then allowed to bind to A549 cells (A) or HCE cells (B) or to infect A549 cells or HCE cells (C). Cell-associated radioactivity (i.e., the extent of 35S-labeled Ad31 virions) was measured with a scintillation counter, and the infectivity was quantified by fluorescence microscopy. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control; **, P of <0.01 versus control.
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FIG. 6. Treatment of epithelial cells with heparinase I has no effect on FIX-mediated Ad31 binding and infection. Ad31 virions were preincubated with or without physiological concentrations of FIX and then allowed to bind to A549 cells (A) or HCE cells (B) or to infect A549 or HCE cells (C) pretreated with increasing concentrations of heparinase I. In binding assays, cell-associated radioactivity was measured with a scintillation counter, whereas in infection assays, infectivity was quantified by fluorescence microscopy.
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FIG. 7. FIX promotes efficient binding of Ad31 to and infection of intestinal cells, independently of cell surface heparan sulfate. (A) Ad31 virions were preincubated with coagulation factors, with or without EDTA as indicated, and allowed to infect adherent intestinal FHs74Int cells for forty-four hours. Infected cells were stained and quantified as described in Materials and Methods. (B to D) 35S-labeled, CsCl-purified Ad31 virions were preincubated with increasing concentrations of FIX (B) or with/without fixed (physiological) concentrations of FIX and increasing concentrations of heparin (C), or with/without fixed concentrations of FIX, and then mixed with cells pretreated with increasing concentrations of heparinase I (D) for one hour on ice. Unbound virions were washed, and cell-associated radioactivity was measured in a scintillation counter. Values are means ± SD. *, P of <0.05 versus control; **, P of <0.01 versus control. Bars in panel A indicate comparisons between FIX and FIX-EDTA or between FX and FX-EDTA.
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In immunocompetent individuals, Ad5 viremia is uncommon and systemic Ad5 infections, including hepatitis, are also rare. Despite this, Ad5 has evolved to interact efficiently with FX via the hexon protein, which results in efficient transduction of hepatocytes after administration of Ad5-based vectors into the circulation. The KD (equilibrium dissociation constant) values reported for Ad5 virions binding to FX range from 0.229 nM (21) to 1.83 nM (42), depending on the experimental approach. The high affinity suggests that this interaction, during natural infections, may have functions other than mediating liver tropism. Blood is obviously the natural environment for coagulation factors, but they may also—via exudation—be transferred to the respiratory mucosa (34). In addition, coagulation factors may also be produced directly by bronchial cells and secreted into the mucosa (33). The concentrations of coagulation factors in body fluids other than blood are unknown. We found that as little as 1% of the blood concentrations of FX was sufficient to mediate efficient binding and infection of Ad5 and that as little as 1% of the blood concentration of FIX was sufficient to mediate efficient binding and infection of Ad31, in both cases using cells that correspond to the natural tropisms of these (and other) Ads. Consequently, these results suggest that even at low concentrations, these factors may promote natural infections by Ads at locations other than the liver, such as the respiratory tract, the eyes, or the intestine.
The interactions of FX with Ad serotypes of species A to F have been studied with surface plasmon resonance (42). Interestingly, unlike Ad5, Ad31 was not found to interact with FX, which is in agreement with our observation that FIX, but not FX, promoted binding of Ad31 to and infection of epithelial cells. Another difference between Ad5 and Ad31 was that heparinase I efficiently blocked both FIX- and FX-mediated binding of Ad5, but not FIX-mediated binding of Ad31. We found this to be rather puzzling, since heparin inhibited FIX-mediated Ad31 binding, albeit at higher concentrations than were required for inhibition of Ad5 binding. The effects of heparin indicate that the cellular receptor binding sites on FX and FIX that mediate indirect binding of Ad5 and Ad31 (respectively) to target cells are related to each other in amino acid sequence and are probably located in similar regions of FIX and FX. However, the results from the heparinase I experiments indicate that whereas FIX and FX mediate binding of Ad5 specifically to cell surface heparan sulfate, this glycosaminoglycan does not appear to be involved in FIX-mediated binding of Ad31 to target cells. Thus, FIX-mediated binding of Ad31 to epithelial cells is likely to involve a heparin binding site on FIX but most likely does not involve cell surface heparan sulfate. Alternatively, FIX-mediated binding of Ad31 to target cells may involve a glycosaminoglycan other than heparan sulfate that is not sensitive to the heparinases used here. Moreover, the concentration of FIX that was found to be required for efficient Ad31 binding was much lower than the concentrations of FIX found to be required for efficient Ad5 binding, which further indicates that the mechanisms of FIX-mediated binding of these two viruses may be fundamentally different. It is, however, too early to exclude alternative explanations to those suggested above.
It has been demonstrated previously that lactoferrin in tear fluid, DPPC in the respiratory mucosa, and blood coagulation factors promote binding to, or transduction of, target cells by species C Ads. Here we have shown that saliva also promotes Ad5 infection of A549 cells, but not of HCE cells. The reason for this difference is unclear. However, the concentrations of DPPC, lactoferrin, and coagulation factors would be expected to be very low in saliva; if this is true, it is likely that saliva contains components, other than those mentioned above, that promote binding of Ad5 to cells in a way similar to that seen for the other soluble components. In our system, breast milk was the only body fluid that did not promote infection of any Ads. The only effect of milk was a small and general inhibition of infection. The reasons for this could be a lack of specific components, such as coagulation factors, in milk. However, the high concentrations of lactoferrin in milk indicate that the slightly inhibitory effect of milk may be due to the presence of inhibitory components, such as antibodies or antiviral peptides, rather than the absence of promoting components.
The effect of coagulation factors on infection of HCE cells by Ads was generally greater than the effect in A549 cells. This is probably because HCE cells express less CAR than do A549 cells (29). Thus, the basal, coagulation factor-independent level of infection is therefore likely to be higher in A549 cells, and consequently, the effect of coagulation factors becomes less obvious. In vivo, however, where CAR is absent on the apical sides of epithelial cells (47), the relative effect of coagulation factors would be expected to be even higher. There is an accumulating amount of data suggesting that whereas CAR is an efficient receptor for Ads on nonpolarized target cells in vitro, it may not be the major receptor for Ads in vivo. In addition to the lack of apically located CAR on polarized target epithelial cells, CAR is not expressed at all on T cells (10), which are secondary target cells for species C Ads (15). Unlike CAR, heparan sulfate is indeed expressed apically on polarized epithelial cells (27), which suggests that viral binding to cell surface heparan sulfate on polarized epithelial cells via coagulation factors is likely to be relevant in vivo. Moreover, a major role of the fiber-CAR interaction may be to facilitate escape from the site of infection rather than cellular entry (46). Based on this, it is reasonable to believe that other components and mechanisms (including coagulation factors, DPPC, and lactoferrin) mediate CAR-independent Ad infections of natural target cells in vivo. When Ads (or Ad-based vectors) enter the circulation, however, it appears that FX is a key determinant of liver transduction. Outside the circulation, the situation is more complex and the relative importance of soluble components requires further examination. It is, however, clear that soluble components in various body fluids have important roles in Ad tropism and that additional components and mechanisms that are used by Ads and perhaps other, unrelated viruses remain to be discovered.
This work was supported by the Swedish Scientific Research Council (Medicine) (grants no. 2003-6008, 2004-6174, and 2007-3402), the Kempe Foundation (grant no. JCK-2818), the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (grant no. F06-0011), the Jeansson Foundations, and the Swedish Society of Medicine and was performed within the Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR).
Published ahead of print on 21 January 2009. ![]()
These authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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