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32 Mutation with a Functional Polymorphism of CD45RA1
Departments of Medicine, Immunology, and Surgery, Center for AIDS Research, Center for Human Genetics, and Human Vaccine Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710
| Abstract |
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32) confers to PBMC resistance to
HIV-1 isolates that use CCR5 as a coreceptor. To study this mutation in
T cell development, we have screened 571 human thymus tissues for the
mutation. We identified 72 thymuses (12.6%) that were heterozygous and
2 (0.35%) that were homozygous for the CCR5
32 mutation. We found
that thymocyte development was normal in both CCR5
32 heterozygous
and homozygous thymuses. In 3% of thymuses we identified a functional
polymorphism of CD45RA, in which cortical and medullary thymocytes
failed to down-regulate the 200- and 220-kDa CD45RA isoforms during T
cell development. Moreover, we found an association of this CD45
functional polymorphism in thymuses with the CCR5
32 mutation
(p = 0.00258). In vitro HIV-1 infection assays with
CCR5-using primary isolates demonstrated that thymocytes with the
heterozygous CCR5
32 mutation produced less p24 than did CCR5
wild-type thymocytes. However, the functional CD45RA polymorphism did
not alter the susceptibility of thymocytes to HIV-1 infection. Taken
together, these data demonstrate association of the CCR5
32 mutation
with a polymorphism in an as yet unknown gene that is responsible for
the ability to down-regulate the expression of high m.w. CD45RA
isoforms. Although the presence of the CCR5
32 mutation
down-regulates HIV-1 infection of thymocytes, the functional CD45RA
polymorphism does not alter the susceptibility of thymocytes to HIV-1
infection in vitro. | Introduction |
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32) are resistant to strains of
HIV-1 that use CCR5 as their coreceptor, but are not resistant to
CXCR4-using strains or strains that use both coreceptors
(7, 8, 9). It has been shown that CCR5
32 homozygotes were
rarely found among HIV-1-infected individuals (10, 11),
and survival analyses have shown that progression to AIDS is slower in
CCR5
32 heterozygotes (12, 13, 14, 15, 16). Functional studies of
peripheral blood (PB)3
T cells homozygous for the CCR5
32 mutation have been normal, and no
clinical abnormalities are associated with this genotype
(8). However, to date no studies of thymocyte function
have been performed in normal subjects homozygous or heterozygous for a
CCR5
32 mutation.
In this study we have screened a bank of human thymus tissues for the
CCR5
32 mutation by PCR and studied the effect of the CCR5
32
mutation on thymocyte development. During the course of this study, we
identified a functional polymorphism of CD45RA expression in which
thymocytes do not normally down-regulate expression of CD45RA high m.w.
isoforms during thymocyte development. Further, we demonstrated linkage
of the functional CD45RA polymorphism with the CCR5
32 mutation.
| Materials and Methods |
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Human thymuses were obtained from the Department of Pathology at
Duke Medical Center as discarded tissues taken in the course of
corrective cardiovascular surgery or therapeutic thymectomy for
myasthenia gravis using a Duke institutional review board-approved
protocol. No tissue was removed that was not clinically indicated by
the surgical procedure being performed. Fresh thymus tissue was either
teased with forceps and scissors, and thymocyte suspensions were
prepared, or a portion (
0.5 x 0.5 cm) was placed in RPMI 1640
medium supplemented with 7.5% DMSO and 15% FCS and snap-frozen in
liquid nitrogen.
Monoclonal Abs
Mouse anti-human CD45 mAb F10-89-4 and CD45RA mAb F8-11-13 were provided by Rosemarie Dalchau (London, U.K.) (17). Anti-CD45 RO mAb UCHL-1 was provided by P. C. L. Beverley (London, U.K.) (18). Anti-CD45RB mAb N-L162 and anti-CD45RC mAb N-L121 were obtained through the Fifth International Workshop on Human Leukocyte Differentiation (19). P3x63 IgG1 paraprotein (P3) was produced by the P3x63 Ag8.652 myeloma cell line (20) and used as a control Ab. PE-conjugated anti-CD4-PE and Cy5-conjugated CD8 were purchased from PharMingen (San Diego, CA).
Cells and tissue culture conditions
Frozen thymocytes were thawed by incubation at 37°C for 1 h in RPMI 1640 medium containing 10% FCS and 10 µg/ml of DNase I (Sigma, St. Louis, MO). After thawing, thymocytes were passed through a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient by centrifugation at 1500 rpm for 30 min and washed twice with RPMI 1640 containing 10% FCS. Thymocytes were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FCS and 10 ng/ml of IL-2 and were maintained at 37°C in a humidified 5% CO2 incubator. Human PBMCs were prepared from buffy coats of healthy, HIV-1-seronegative individuals obtained through the laboratory services of the American Red Cross, Carolina region (Charlotte, NC). PBMC were isolated by Ficoll-Hypaque gradient centrifugation and were used as positive control cells for in vitro HIV-1 infection assays. PBMC were washed twice in RPMI 1640 medium containing 20% heat-inactivated FCS, resuspended at a density of 2.5 x 107 cells/ml in the same medium containing 10% DMSO, and frozen in 1-ml aliquots in liquid nitrogen. PBMC were prescreened for the ability to support the replication of syncytium-inducing (SI) and non-SI (NSI) primary isolates of HIV-1 to confirm the expression of appropriate coreceptors, including CCR5.
HIV-1 virus stocks
Seven different strains of HIV-1 belonging to the genetic clade B subtype were used to infect thymocytes and PBMC in vitro. The IIIB strain is an SI, T cell line-adapted strain that uses CXCR4 as its major coreceptor (3, 21, 22). 89.6 is an SI primary isolate that infects macrophages and CD4+ lymphocytes (23) and is capable of using multiple coreceptors (22), although CXCR4 usage dominates (24). We used the uncloned stock of 89.6 that had been passaged minimally in PBMC and was expanded in PBMC for use in this study. V67970 is an SI primary isolate that uses both CXCR4 and CCR5 (24, 25) and was expanded once in PBMC from the original coculture supernatant. Ba-L is an NSI HIV primary isolate that infects macrophages and CD4+ lymphocytes (26) and uses CCR5 as its sole coreceptor (22). P15 and P46 are NSI primary isolates obtained during early seroconversion (27) and use CCR5 as their sole coreceptor (D. Montefiori, unpublished observations). These latter two HIV-1 isolates were used after a single expansion in PBMC of original coculture supernatants. JR-FL is a CCR5-using NSI primary isolate obtained from frontal lobe brain tissue of a patient with AIDS dementia (28). To be consistent with current nomenclature (29), HIV-1 viruses that use CCR5 as their major coreceptor will hereafter be referred to as R5 strains (Ba-L, P15, P46, and JR-FL), viruses that use CXCR4 will be termed X4 strains (IIIB), and viruses that use both coreceptors will be termed R5X4 strains (89.6 and V67970). Ba-L and JR-FL were obtained from the National Institutes of Health AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program (Rockville, MD).
Infection of thymocytes
Cyopreserved thymocytes (2 x 108 cells/ml/vial) and PBMC were thawed at 37°C and suspended in 20 ml of stimulation medium consisting of RPMI 1640 containing heat-inactivated FBS (20%), gentamicin (50 µg/ml), PHA-P (5 µg/ml), and delectinized IL-2 (5%, v/v; Advanced Biotechnologies, Columbia, MD). The cells were incubated at 37°C for 2 days, washed twice with 10 ml of growth medium (minus IL-2), and suspended in IL-2 growth medium at a density of 5 x 107 cells/ml. Cells were seeded into 96-well U-bottom culture plates at a density of 5 x 106 cells/100 µl/well. Fifty microliters of virus was added to four wells for each cell type and incubated at 37°C overnight; each cell type was inoculated with an equal dose of virus. Fifty microliters of IL-2 growth medium was added to an additional four wells for each cell type as a negative control. After the overnight incubation the cells were washed twice with IL-2 growth medium to remove the virus inoculum and then were resuspended in 150 µl of fresh IL-2 growth medium. Culture fluids (25 µl) were harvested on days 4 and 8 of incubation and mixed with 225 µl of 0.5% Triton X-100 for p24 quantification. The remaining culture fluid on day 4 was removed and replaced with fresh IL-2 growth medium. Viral p24 Ag was quantified by ELISA (HIV-1 p24 Core Profile ELISA, DuPont/NEN, Boston, MA).
CCR5 genotyping
Genomic DNA was isolated from either whole thymus tissue or
isolated thymocytes and was amplified for CCR5 by PCR based on the
methods described by Samon et al. (7) with modification.
Briefly, primer CCR5-F1 (5'-CAAATTGGCTAC-3') and CCR5-R1
(5'CCTTGGAAGCTGG-3') flanking the region of the 32-nucleotide deletion
in CCR5 gene were used to generate wild-type and deleted DNA fragments
of 326 and 294 bp, respectively. The PCR reaction mixture contained
1 µg of genomic DNA, 0.2 mM dNTPs, 20 pmol of each primer, and
0.25 U of Taq DNA polymerase (Life Technologies/BRL, Gaithersburg, MD)
in a total volume of 25 µl. PCR amplification was conducted for 4 min
at 94°C followed by 30 cycles of 94°C for 40 s, 60°C for
40 s, and 72°C for 40 s. Samples of the PCR products were
fractionated on 1.2% agarose and 2% wide-range agarose (Sigma, St.
Louis, MO) gel containing 0.5 µg/ml ethidium bromide and visualized
under UV light.
Immunoprecipitation and SDS-PAGE
Thymocytes (0.5 x 107 cells) were labeled with 125I (NEN Life Science Products, Boston, MA) (30) and lysed in 500 µl of lysis buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 150 mM NaCl, 2 µg/ml aprotinin, 2 µg/ml leupeptin, and 1% of Nonidet P-40). Immunoprecipitation were conducted as previously described (31). Briefly, cell lysates were first precleared by incubation with control mAb P3 followed by protein A/G-agarose (Sigma). Precleared cell lysates were the incubated with CD45, CD45RA, or control mAbs for 4 h followed by incubation with protein A/G-agarose (Sigma). Immune complexes were washed five times with buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 140 mM NaCl, and 0.025% NaN3), resuspended in SDS-PAGE sample buffer, boiled for 5 min, and subjected to SDS-PAGE on 7% polyacrylamide gels.
Indirect immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry
Serial frozen 5-µm sections of thymus were cut and incubated with saturating amounts of mAbs against CD3, CD4, CD8, CD45RA, CD45RO, CD45RB, and CD45RC or control mAb P3 in PBS containing sodium azide for 30 min at room temperature, washed twice with PBS, and then incubated with saturating amounts of goat anti-mouse IgG-FITC for 30 min at room temperature. These sections were washed three times with PBS, then viewed under fluorescence microscopy. Thymocytes in suspension (0.5 x 106 cells/tube) before and after activation with PHA were incubated for 30 min at 4°C with various mAbs against the cell surface molecules, including CD4, CD8, CD45RA, CD45RO, CD45RB, CD45RC, and CXCR4 and control mAb P3 in 100 µl of PBS containing 0.2% BSA and 0.1% sodium azide. Cells were washed twice with PBS with BSA/sodium azide, incubated with goat anti-mouse IgG-FITC for 30 min at 4°C followed by washing twice with PBS with BSA/sodium azide. In some experiments in which three-color flow cytometric analysis was performed, thymocytes were incubated with PE-conjugated mouse anti-CD4, and Cy5-conjugated mouse anti-CD8 after completion of incubation with the goat anti-mouse IgG-FITC. After staining, thymocytes were washed, fixed in 0.4% paraformaldehyde in PBS, and protected from light at 4°C until analysis by a flow cytometer. Three-color flow cytometry was performed using a FACScan flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Data acquisition and analysis were conducted with CellQuest software. For each cell sample, a total of 104 cell events were analyzed. Data are expressed as the mean fluorescence channel (MFC), an indication of the intensity of cells stained with specific mAbs.
Statistical analysis
The Fisher exact test was used to analyze association of the
heterozygous or the homozygous CCR5
32 mutation with the presence of
the abnormality of CD45RA expression in thymocytes.
| Results |
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32 mutation in a bank of human thymus
tissues
The Human Thymus Bank at Duke University contains 571 normal or
myasthenia gravis thymuses. These thymuses were from patients with
congenital heart disease (age range, 1 day to 17 years) and patients
with myasthenia gravis (age range, 380 years). We screened these 571
thymus tissues for the CCR5
32 mutation using PCR (Table I
and Fig. 1
). Seventy-two thymuses (12.6%) were
heterozygous for the CCR5
32 deletion mutation
(CCR5
32+/-), and two thymuses (0.35%) were
homozygous for CCR5
32 deletion mutation
(CCR5
32-/-). Although
both thymuses that were homozygous for CCR5
32 were from patients
with congenital heart disease, there was no statistical difference in
the frequency of CCR5
32 in patients with myasthenia gravis compared
with that in children with congenital cardiovascular disease (not
significant). Sequence analysis of thymus
CCR5
32-/- DNA revealed
the same CCR5
32 deletion mutation sequence as that previously
reported in PBMC (data not shown) (7, 8). Because thymuses
were collected as randomly acquired discarded tissues, no data were
kept for patients regarding race or ethnic background, and therefore,
no relationship of the frequency of CCR5
32 mutation with race was
studied. However, the overall distribution of CCR5 genotype in the
thymus tissue bank was similar to the distribution of CCR5 genotypes as
reported for a randomly selected population (7, 8).
|
|
To characterize thymuses with the heterozygous and homozygous
CCR5
32 mutations, serial frozen thymus tissue sections were reacted
with mAbs against cell surface molecules, including CD3, CD4, CD8,
CD45RA, CD45RO, CD45RB, and CD45RC. Normal distribution of CD3, CD4,
and CD8 cell populations was found in thymuses with heterozygous and
homozygous CCR5
32 mutations compared with that in thymuses without
the CCR5
32 mutation (data not shown).
Thymocyte maturation was normal in
CCR5
32-/- and
CCR5
32+/- thymuses compared with that in CCR5
wild-type thymuses, in that phenotypic analysis of
CCR5
32-/-
(n = 2) and CCR5
32+/-
thymuses (n = 6) demonstrated normal subsets of
CD4-CD8- double-negative (DN),
CD4+CD8+ double-positive
(DP) and CD4+CD8- or
CD4-CD8+ single-positive
(SP) thymocytes (Table II
). Thus, the
lack of CCR5 did not grossly interfere with normal thymocyte
development.
|
95%)
and are destined to die in vivo, while a minority of thymocytes express
CD45RA (
5%), indicating that they have successfully been positively
selected and are poised for export to the periphery as naive T cells
(32, 33, 34). During our analysis of
CCR5
32+/- and
CCR5
32-/- thymuses, we
found abnormal patterns of expression of CD45RA in six of the thymuses
with the CCR5
32 mutation, in which all thymocytes in both cortex and
medulla were inappropriately brightly CD45RA positive (Fig. 2
|
The CD45RA abnormal phenotype in thymus was investigated by flow
cytometric analysis of purified thymocytes using CD45 mAbs. The mean
fluorescence intensity of CD45RA abnormal thymocytes was
10-fold
higher with CD45RA mAb staining (MFC, 664) than that of thymocytes
isolated from thymus tissue with the normal CD45RA staining pattern
(MFC, 75; Fig. 3
). In contrast, there
were no differences in the level of expression of CD45RO, CD45RB, and
CD45RC between thymocytes isolated from thymus tissues with the CD45RA
normal vs the abnormal phenotype (Fig. 3
).
|
7% of normal
thymocytes were CD45RA+; Fig. 4
90% of thymocytes are CD45RA+,
CD45RA mAb F8-11-13 immunoprecipitated two major isoforms of 220 and
200 kDa, demonstrating that the CD45RA reactivity in the CD45RA
abnormal phenotype thymuses was due to the lack of normal
down-regulation of 200- and 220-kDa CD45RA isoforms during thymocyte
development.
|
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90% of all CD45RA abnormal thymocytes
were CD45RA+.
Striking differences in CD45RA expression were observed between the
CD45RA normal and abnormal thymuses in all thymocyte populations. For
example, while 90% of DP
CD4+/CD8+ cells and 98% of
CD4+/CD8- cells were
CD45RA positive in the CD45RA abnormal phenotype thymuses, only 0.2%
of DP CD4+/CD8+ and 9% of
CD4+/CD8- thymocytes were
CD45RA positive in CD45RA normal thymocytes (Fig. 5
B).
Relationship of CD45RA abnormal phenotype in thymocytes with a previously described genetically determined lack of CD45RA-negative lymphocytes in PBMC
It has been previously reported that a genetically determined lack of CD45RA-negative PB T cells is present in 8% of healthy individuals (35). No loss of CD45RA expression in PB T cells of these individuals was observed after in vitro activation with PHA due to selective lack of down-regulation of the 200-kDa CD45RA isoform (35, 36). To address whether the CD45RA abnormal phenotype identified in thymus in our study was similar to the genetically determined lack of CD45RA-negative T cells found in peripheral blood lymphocytes (35, 36), CD45RA normal and abnormal thymocytes were activated in vitro with 1 µg/ml of PHA, and analyzed for surface expression of CD45RA and CD45RO.
As shown in Fig. 6
A, most
unactivated CD45RA normal thymocytes were
CD45RAlow or negative with an MFC of 101, and
CD45RO+ with an MFC of 224. In contrast, most
thymocytes from the CD45RA abnormal thymus were
CD45RA+ with an MFC of 409. Activation of
thymocytes in vitro with PHA down-regulated CD45RA expression in
thymocytes with the CD45RA normal phenotype (as reflected by a lower
MFC of 50 in Fig. 6
B). However, CD45RA expression in
thymocytes with the CD45RA abnormal phenotype was not down-regulated
after PHA activation, but, rather, was increased by almost 200% to an
MFC of 832 (Fig. 6
B). After PHA activation, expression of
CD45RO was up-regulated in both CD45RA normal and CD45RA abnormal
phenotype thymocytes, and no differences in CD45RO expression after in
vitro activation between CD45RA normal phenotype and CD45RA abnormal
phenotype thymocytes was seen.
|
Analysis of linkage of abnormal thymocyte expression of CD45RA with
the CCR5
32 mutation
Four hundred and six of the 571 original thymus tissues were
available to screen for the CD45RA abnormal phenotype. We found
statistically significant higher numbers of the CD45RA abnormal
phenotype in thymuses with either the heterozygous and homozygous
CCR5
32 mutation than in CCR5 wild-type thymuses (Table III
). We identified the abnormality of
CD45RA expression in 1 of 2 thymuses homozygous for the CCR5
32
mutation, in 5 of 64 thymuses heterozygous for the CCR5
32 mutation,
and in 6 of 340 thymuses with wild-type CCR5 genes with no CCR5
32
mutations. The CCR5
32 allele was found in 50% of those expressing
the CD45RA abnormal phenotype compared with 15% in those not
expressing it. Using two-tailed Fishers exact test to test for
association between CD45RA abnormality and CCR5
32 mutation, a
statistically significant association between CD45RA abnormality and
CCR5
32 mutation was demonstrated (p =
0.00258). We next performed three pairwise comparisons of the CCR5
32
genotypes. Pairwise comparison of the homozygous and heterozygous
CCR5
32 genotypes with the wild-type CCR5 genotype detected
statistically significant association of both the homozygous and
heterozygous CCR5
32 genotypes with the CD45RA abnormal phenotype
(Table IV
).
|
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32+/- and CD45RA
abnormal thymocytes to HIV infection in vitro
Differences in HIV-1 infectivity have been previously suggested in
normal PBMC CD45RA+ naive vs
CD45RO+ memory CD4+ PB T
cells (37), and the functional capacity of
CD45RO+ CD4+ T cells is
affected by HIV-1 more than that of CD45RA+
CD4+ T cells (37). However, to date,
CCR5
32+/- thymocytes have not been studied
regarding HIV-1 infectivity. Considering the importance of CCR5 in
HIV-1 infection (38) taken together with the association
between the CD45RA abnormal phenotype and CCR5
32 genotype in
thymocytes described here, it was also of interest to determine whether
the CD45RA abnormal phenotype could influence the infectability of
thymocytes with different CCR5 genetic backgrounds. Individuals who are
homozygous for the CCR5
32 allele are highly resistant to infection
by R5 strains of HIV-1, and their PBMC cannot be infected with R5
strains in vitro (8, 39). Individuals who are heterozygous
for the CCR5
32 allele, on the other hand, are susceptible to
infection with R5 strains, but progress to AIDS at a slower rate
relative to infected individuals who have wild-type CCR5 alleles
(12, 13, 40). Likewise, PBMC from heterozygous CCR5
32
individuals are infectable by R5 strains, although not always to the
same extent as PBMC with normal CCR5 alleles (8, 41).
Lower levels of infection in heterozygous CCR5
32 PBMC might in some
cases be due to decreased amounts of CCR5 on the cell surface
(41, 42).
Sufficient cell numbers were not available to test thymocytes
homozygous for the CCR5
32 mutation in HIV-1 infectivity assays.
However, thymocytes with the CD45RA normal and abnormal phenotypes were
tested in HIV-1 infectivity assays in combination with either wild-type
CCR5 alleles or alleles that were heterozygous for the CCR5
32
mutation. Cells in each group were tested for infectability with five
primary R5 isolates, two primary R5X4 isolates, and one X4 T cell
line-adapted strain of HIV-1. Infection was compared with the
infectability of PBMC from a healthy, HIV-1-negative individual who had
normal wild-type CCR5 alleles. Equal numbers of viable cells of each
cell type were used so that direct comparisons of levels of infection
could be made. Viral replication was measured by p24 production on days
4 and 8 of infection.
Thymocytes in each group were infectable by all strains of HIV-1
tested, although infection proceeded at a slow rate in all thymocyte
samples compared with PBMC (Table V
). For example, HIV-1 p24 production
in PBMC increased from 6.1 to 496 ng of p24/ml on day 4 of incubation,
whereas infection in thymocytes was lower (0.22.0 ng of p24/ml)) or
undetectable (<0.1 ng of p24/ml) on day 4. The medium was replaced on
day 4, and p24 again was again measured on day 8. Higher levels of
p24 were seen in the thymocyte cultures at this time, in some cases
approaching the levels detected in PBMC (Table V
). Although the results varied among
cell types and viruses, at least two general observations were made.
First, R5 primary isolates were capable of producing a productive
infection regardless of the CCR5 genotype and CD45RA phenotype. The
level of infection was lower in thymocytes that were heterozygous for
the CCR5
32 mutation compared with CCR5 wild-type thymuses
(p < 0.01). Second, the level of HIV-1
infection of thymocytes was independent of the CD45RA expression
phenotype. We saw no difference in the level of p24 production on day 4
or 8 in CD45RA normal vs CD45RA abnormal thymocytes
(p > 0.5). R5 viruses replicated in thymus as
well as, if not better than, X4 and R5X4 viruses in most cases. One
possible exception was thymocytes from thymus T-690 that was
CCR5
32+/- and CD45RA normal phenotype. Here,
no infection with R5 strains was detectable on days 4 and 8 of
incubation. However, infection with X4 and X4R5 strains in these cells
was also low, suggesting that in this case the lack of detectable
infection with R5 strains may be a quantitative issue related to slow
replication rather than a qualitative aspect of the infectability of
the thymocytes.
|
| Discussion |
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32 mutation with a functional polymorphism of CD45RA expression
in thymocytes. Moreover, we have shown that thymocytes, like PB T
cells, when heterozygous for the CCR5
32 mutation, produced lower HIV
p24 in vitro after infection with HIV. However, we could determine no
effect of the CD45RA polymorphism on in vitro HIV infectivity of
thymocytes.
A number of mutations in HIV-1 coreceptor genes have been found that
modify HIV-1 infectivity in vitro, modify the clinical course HIV-1
infection, or both. These include CCR2 (43), stem
cell-derived factor-1 (44), and CXCR4 (45)
mutations as well as the CCR5
32 mutation (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16), The
identification of a functional polymorphism of CD45RA expression in
association with the CCR5
32 mutation is of potentially great
interest. The presumption is that whatever evolutionary advantage
conferred on humans by the CCR5
32 mutation may have been potentially
impacted in an as yet unknown way by linkage to the CD45RA abnormal
phenotype.
The family of human CD45 leukocyte common Ags is comprised of five glycoprotein members with Mr of 180 kDa (O), 190 kDa (B), 200 kDa (AB and BC), and 220 kDa (ABC) that are derived from alternative splicing of a single gene. The heterogeneity of CD45 isoforms can be identified by mAbs that specifically react with epitopes of the distinct isoforms. The expression of CD45RA and CD45RO isoforms has, in general, defined complementary subsets of T cells that differ in naive and memory functional properties (46, 47).
Because CD45RA+ PB CD4+ T cells when infected with HIV-1 produce lower levels of p24 (37), we postulated that abnormal expression of CD45RA isoforms in thymus would confer on thymocytes some degree of HIV-1 resistance as well. That this was not the case suggests that factors other than CD45RA expression per se in CD45RA+ PB native CD4+ T cells are responsible for the relative resistance to HIV-1 infection of the naive T cell subset.
Given the recent appearance of HIV-1 in man and the ancient nature of
the CCR5
32 mutation, it has been postulated that the CCR5
32
mutation confers a selective advantage to humans in an as yet unknown
way that may be unrelated to modulating host resistance to HIV-1
infection. Functionally, CCR5
32 PB T cells are normal in in vitro T
cell proliferation assays (8). We have found
CCR5
32-/- and
CCR5
32+/- thymocytes undergo normal T cell
maturation (Table II
and Fig. 5
A) and proliferate normally
in vitro in response to TCR-mediated triggering (unpublished
observations). Moreover, signaling in
CCR5
32-/- thymocytes
via chemokines other than CCR5 ligand is normal, while signaling with
CCR5 ligands is, as expected, absent (H.-X. Liao and B. F. Haynes,
unpublished observations). Thus, as yet, no physiologically relevant
effect of the CCR5
32 mutation has been found on PB T cell or
thymocyte function.
It has been shown that CD4+ T cells with the
heterozygous CCR5
32 mutation are partially resistant to HIV
infection with R5 HIV-1 strains (7, 8, 9). One explanation
for the severe lymphodepletion seen in thymuses from patients with
end-stage AIDS is infection and destruction of thymocytes by HIV-1
(48); however, in situ hybridization for HIV-1 in these
thymuses did not show a large thymus burden of HIV-1 (48).
Previous studies have shown that human thymocytes are susceptible in
vitro to HIV-1 infection (49, 50, 51). We have found that
thymocyte cultures were less sensitive to HIV-1 infection in vitro
compared with PBMC cultures. Thymocytes with the heterozygous CCR5
32
mutation infected with R5 strains produced lower levels of p24 than did
CCR5 wild-type thymocytes infected with the same HIV-1 isolates. These
results suggested that thymocytes with the heterozygous CCR5
32
mutation are partially resistant to R5 HIV-1. In contrast, thymocytes
with the heterozygous CCR5
32 mutation and thymocytes with wild-type
CCR5 had similar susceptibility to X4 and R5X4 strains. Although CXCR4
is expressed on fresh thymocytes and up-regulated in activated
thymocytes, the levels of p24 produced in thymocyte cultures infected
with the X4 strain, IIIB, and the R5X4 strain, 89.6, were lower than
those in thymocyte cultures infected with R5 HIV-1 strains. Thus, as
postulated by others there may be thymotropic strains of HIV-1 that are
more destructive to thymuses than other less thymotropic HIV-1 strains
(52).
Given the similarity of the defect of activation-induced CD45RA isoform down-regulation in thymocytes described in this report to that of the previously described lack of CD45RA down-regulation in PB T cells (35), we suggest that the defects are identical, and that we have now observed the consequence of the previously described PB T cell CD45RA abnormality in thymocytes (35, 36). However, this question remains unresolved until PB and thymocyte specimens are available from the same person with the CD45RA abnormality for study.
It is of interest that in the CD45RA abnormal phenotype described here, there is lack of down-regulation of both the 220- and 200-kDa CD45RA isoforms during thymocyte development. In contrast, in the previously described polymorphism of persistent CD45RA expression on memory PB T cells (34), in the transition from naive to memory T cells only the 200-kDa CD45RA isoform was not down-regulated. Therefore, if the two polymorphisms of CD45 isoform regulation are the same, they are expressed differently in thymocyte maturation (lack of down-regulation of both the 220- and 200-kDa CD45RA isoform) vs that in naive to memory PB T cell conversion (lack of down-regulation of only the 200-kDa isoform).
Thus, we have shown a new association of the CCR5
32 mutation with an
as yet uncharacterized gene mutation responsible for the inability to
appropriately down-regulate CD45RA isoforms during thymocyte
development and activation. Because CD45 is encoded on chromosome 1
(53, 54), and CCR5 is encoded on chromosome 3
(12), this association must be mediated by an unidentified
gene product that modifies CD45 processing and is located on chromosome
3 at a distance from CCR5. It will be of interest to determine in
population studies whether the presence of the CD45RA abnormal
polymorphism in association with the CCR5
32 mutation has any effect
on the clinical outcome of HIV-1 infection.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Hua-Xin Liao, Box 3258, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710. ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: PB, peripheral blood; SI, syncytium-inducing; NSI, non-syncytium-inducing; MFC, mean fluorescence channel; DN, double negative; DP, double positive; SP, single positive. ![]()
Received for publication January 14, 2000. Accepted for publication April 19, 2000.
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