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The Journal of Immunology, 2002, 168: 3464-3469.
Copyright © 2002 by The American Association of Immunologists

The MHC Class I Homolog of Human Cytomegalovirus Is Resistant to Down-Regulation Mediated by the Unique Short Region Protein (US)2, US3, US6, and US11 Gene Products1

Boyoun Park2,*, Hokyung Oh2,*, Sungwook Lee*, Yangsook Song*, Jinwook Shin*, Young Chul Sung{ddagger}, Sue-Yun Hwang{dagger} and Kwangseog Ahn3,*

* Graduate School of Biotechnology, Korea University, and {dagger} Catholic Institutes of Medical Science, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea; and {ddagger} Division of Molecular and Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Human CMV encodes four unique short region proteins (US), US2, US3, US6, and US11, each independently sufficient for causing the down-regulation of MHC class I molecules on the cell surface. This down-regulation allows infected cells to evade recognition by cytotoxic T cells but leaves them susceptible to NK cells, which lyse cells that lack class I molecules. Another human CMV-encoded protein, unique long region protein 18 (UL18), is an MHC class I homolog that might provide a mechanism for inhibiting the NK cell response. The sequence similarities between MHC class I molecules and UL18 along with the ability of UL18 to form trimeric complexes with {beta}2-microglobulin and peptides led to the hypothesis that if the US and UL18 gene products coexist temporally during infection, the US proteins might down-regulate UL18 molecules, similar to their action on MHC class I molecules. We show here that temporal expression of US and UL18 genes partially overlaps during infection. However, unlike MHC class I molecules, the MHC class I homolog, UL18, is fully resistant to the down-regulation associated with the US2, US3, US6, and US11 gene products. The specific effect of US proteins on MHC class I molecules, but not on UL18, represents another example of how viral proteins have evolved to evade immune surveillance, avoiding fratricide by specifically targeting host proteins.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Human CMV (HCMV),4 a {beta}-herpesvirus, contributes to the high morbidity and mortality of immunocompromised patients, most notably organ transplant recipients and AIDS patients (1). HCMV exists ubiquitously in human populations worldwide, and a primary infection is followed by lifelong persistence of the virus in the host. A major immune defense of host cells against HCMV, and viral infections in general, is mediated by CTL, which recognize and lyse infected cells upon engagement of the TCR with MHC class I molecules presenting viral peptides (2). With the selective pressure of the host immune response, several strategies have evolved for HCMV to down-regulate HLA-A and -B expression on the surface of infected cells (3). At present, four different gene products of the unique short region protein (US), US2, US3, US6, and US11, have been identified, each independently capable of reducing class I H chain expression on the cell surface. The US2 and US11 gene products induce rapid export of the class I H chains out of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) into the cytosol where the H chains are degraded by proteasomes (4, 5). US3 expression causes MHC class I molecules to accumulate in the ER by preventing the transport of the assembled class I Ags to the cell surface (6, 7). Furthermore, US6 prevents peptide loading of the MHC class I molecules by inhibiting TAP-mediated peptide translocation into the ER. The US6 gene product encodes a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that binds directly to TAP in the ER lumen, consequently inhibiting peptide translocation (8, 9, 10).

Although interference with class I-mediated Ag presentation or class I expression might enable infected cells to evade virus-specific T cells, it might also render these cells susceptible to detection and lysis by NK cells, which express both activating and inhibitory surface receptors. The activating receptors are predominantly triggered by non-MHC molecules, whereas the inhibitory receptors recognize MHC class I molecules (11). Stimulation of activating receptors leads to target cell lysis unless the NK cell inhibitory receptors are able to engage an adequate level of self class I molecules on the target cell (12). Therefore, infected cells with class I molecules that have been down-regulated to a level sufficient to avoid T cells can be recognized and eliminated by NK cells. However, unique long region protein 18 (UL18), an HCMV-encoded MHC class I homolog, might provide a mechanism for undermining the host NK cell response (13). The HCMV-encoded homolog, UL18, is a 348-aa residue type I transmembrane glycoprotein whose extracellular region shares ~25% amino acid sequence homology with the extracellular regions of human MHC class I molecules (13). Like MHC class I molecules, UL18 associates with {beta}2-microglobulin ({beta}2m) (14), and UL18 expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells binds a mixture of endogenous peptides that are similar to peptides eluted from class I molecules (15). The sequence similarities between MHC class I molecules and UL18 along with the ability of UL18 to form trimeric complexes with {beta}2m and peptides suggest that the US proteins might act on UL18 in a manner analogous to their action on MHC class I molecules. In supporting of this hypothesis, UL18 glycoprotein has not been detected on the surface of HCMV-infected cells, while it is readily detected on cells transfected with the UL18 gene (14, 16). The down-regulation of UL18 expression on the cell surface by US proteins might expose the cells to NK-mediated lysis. Two mechanisms can be envisaged by which HCMV could counteract this threat: the virus might temporally express US proteins and UL18 at different times during infection, or UL18 might be intrinsically insensitive to the action of US proteins.

We report that, unlike MHC class I molecules, the cell surface expression of UL18 was not influenced by any of the HCMV US proteins. Thus, our data suggest that the gene products of HCMV have evolved complementary activities, comprising a strategy that allows the virus to evade the host immune response.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Cell lines and cell culture

HeLa and U373-MG astrocytoma cell lines were obtained from American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA) and cultured in DMEM (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) supplemented with 10% FBS (HyClone Laboratories, Logan, UT), 2 mM L-glutamine, 50 U/ml penicillin, and 50 µg/ml streptomycin. Human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) cells (passage 8–10) were used in this study. HFF cells were grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS under 5% CO2 at 37°C. To establish stable cell lines expressing US2 or US11, we cloned each cDNA into the pcDNA3.1 mammalian expression vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) and transfected the resulting constructs into U373-MG cells by the calcium phosphate precipitation method. Stable clones were selected by adding 0.5 mg/ml G418 (Life Technologies). Stable transfectants expressing tetracycline-inducible US3, US6, or ICP47 (the HSV immediate early protein, or TAP inhibitor) have been described previously (7, 8, 17).

Antibodies

mAb 10C7 (American Type Culture Collection) recognizes UL18. MHC class I-specific antiserum K455 was raised against purified human class I heterodimers with human {beta}2m (18). K455 recognizes H chain and {beta}2m in both assembled and nonassembled forms. mAb W6/32 recognizes only the complex of H chain and {beta}2m. Normal mouse IgG was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). Polyclonal antisera specific for US2 (anti-US2), US3 (anti-US3), US6 (anti-US6), and US11 (anti-US11) were raised against synthetic peptides corresponding to the N-terminal portion of the proteins (7, 8).

Pulse-chase labeling and immunoprecipitation

Cells were starved for 30 min in medium lacking methionine, labeled with 0.1 mCi/ml [35S]methionine (TranS-label; NEN Life Science, Boston, MA) for 15 min and chased in regular medium for the indicated times. After one wash with cold PBS, the cells were lysed using 1% Nonidet P-40 (Sigma-Aldrich) in PBS or 1% digitonin in PBS for 30 min at 4°C. After this incubation, protein G-Sepharose beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ) were added to the lysates. The protein binding beads were then washed four times with 0.1% Nonidet P-40 or 0.1% digitonin, and the proteins were eluted by boiling in SDS sample buffer. Samples were separated by 10% SDS-PAGE. The gels were dried, exposed to BAS film, and analyzed using the phosphor imaging system (BAS-2500; Fuji Film, Tokyo, Japan). For endoglycosidase H treatment, the immunoprecipitates were digested with 3 mU endoglycosidase H (Roche, Indianapolis, IN) for 16 h at 37°C in 50 mM NaOAc (pH 5.6), 0.3% SDS, and 150 mM {beta}-ME.

Viruses and viral infection

UL18 cDNA was provided by P. Bjorkman (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA). Vaccinia virus recombinant expressing UL18 was produced by cloning cDNA encoding the respective gene behind the early/late vaccinia virus p7.5 promoter into a modified pSC11 plasmid as previously described (19), and plaque was purified three times in thymidine kinase-deficient 143B cells under bromodeoxyuridine selection (50 µg/ml). Cells were infected with recombinant vaccinia viruses at a multiplicity of infection of 10 for 1 h in 500 µl PBS supplemented with 10% BSA (Sigma-Aldrich) at 37°C. The AD169 strain of HCMV was used to infect HFF cells.

Flow cytometric analysis

The surface expression of UL18 and MHC class I molecules was determined by flow cytometry (FACSCalibur; BD Biosciences, Mountain View, CA). Cells (1 x 106) were washed twice with cold PBS containing 1% BSA and then incubated for 1 h at 4°C with either 10C7 for UL18 or W6/32 for MHC class I molecules. Normal mouse IgG was used as a negative control at each test. The cells were washed twice with cold PBS containing 1% BSA and then stained with FITC-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG for 40 min. A total of 10,000 gated events were collected by the FACSCalibur cytometer and analyzed with CellQuest software (BD Biosciences).

RNA isolation and RT-PCR analysis

HFF cells were infected with the wild-type HCMV strain AD169 at a multiplicity of infection of 0.5. We used the RNeasy Mini kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Qiagen, Valencia, CA) to isolate total RNA from infected cells at the indicated time points. For RT-PCR, we used the SuperScript RT-PCR system (Life Technologies) with the following primers: GAPDH, 5'-ACCACCATGGAGAAGGCTGG; GAPDH, 3'-CTCAGTGTAGCCCAGGATGC; US2, 5'-GTGATGCCGATCTTCGAGA; US2, 3'-CAGTCCACAGTCACATACAC; US3, 5'-CCACCATGATGAGCGCGG; US3, 3'-GCAGACGGGCGCCC; US6, 5'-ATCCCGTCCGAACGATAGG; US6, 3'-TCGATTCGTATGTTATGCTGC; US11, 5'-GGTGTACTACCAGACGCTG and 3'-ATCATCAGCGTATACTGCG; UL18, 5'-ATAGCGAGCCTCAATGCAAT; and UL18, 3'-GTTAGCTGTCGGGTGATCA. An initial denaturation at 94°C for 5 min was followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 1 min, annealing at 60°C for 1 min, and extension at 72°C for 1 min, ending with a final extension at 72°C for 10 min.

Biotinylation of cell surface proteins

Biotinylation of cell surface proteins was performed essentially as previously described (20) with minor modifications. Cells were washed gently twice in ice-cold PBS. Cells were incubated with sulfo-NHS-biotin working solution (0.5 mg/ml; Pierce, Rockford, IL) with gentle shaking for 30 min at 4°C. After washing three times with PBS, cells were lysed in Nonidet P-40. After centrifugation at 10,000 x g for 15 min at 4°C, the supernatant was transferred to a new tube and the mAb 10C7 was added. Vials were rotated for 1 h at 4°C. Subsequently, 50 µl of 50% prewashed protein G-Sepharose (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ) was added, and the vials were rotated for a further 30 min at 4°C. After washing three times with PBS, bound proteins were eluted by boiling in SDS sample buffer, separated on SDS-PAGE, and transferred to an Immobilon-P membrane (Millipore, Bedford, MA). The membrane was incubated for 2 h in blocking buffer, followed by HRP-conjugated streptavidin for 3 h. Biotinylated surface proteins were visualized using ECL Western blotting reagent (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech).


    Results
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Temporal pattern of expression of US and UL18 genes

Because down-regulation of UL18 by the US gene products could render HCMV-infected cells susceptible to attack by NK cells, we hypothesized that expression of the UL18 and US genes did not overlap. To determine the times during HCMV infection that the UL18 and US genes are expressed, we extracted RNA at various time points from AD169 (HCMV wild-type)-infected HFF cells for RT-PCR analysis. We included GAPDH primers as the internal PCR control. The results showed that US2 mRNA expression was first detected 12 h postinfection but could not be detected after 120 h postinfection (Fig. 1Go). US3 mRNA was detected from 4–12 h postinfection. US6 mRNA was expressed from 8–120 postinfection, and the expression profile of US11 mRNA was similar to the pattern observed for US6 mRNA. The UL18 mRNA was detected from 54 to at least 120 h postinfection. Contrary to our hypothesis, the UL18 gene and the other US genes, except US3, displayed a partially overlapping temporal pattern of expression, suggesting that UL18 could potentially be subjected to down-regulation mediated by the US2, US6, or US11 gene product.



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FIGURE 1. RT-PCR analysis for the temporal appearance of US2, US3, US6, US11, and UL18 mRNAs. RNAs were extracted from AD169-infected HFF cells at the indicated times postinfection and analyzed by RT-PCR. Agarose gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining were used to examine the products of RT-PCR for the genes. As a control, the appearance and quantity of GAPDH mRNA were also assessed by RT-PCR.

 
UL18 is resistant to degradation of class I H chains associated with the HCMV gene products US2 and US11

Next, we determined whether the US gene products could functionally mediate down-regulation of UL18. The US2 and US11 gene products induce rapid export of the class I H chains out of the ER and into the cytosol, where they are degraded by proteasomes; therefore, US2 and US11 cause the down-regulation of MHC class I surface expression in HCMV-infected cells (4, 5). To find out whether HCMV US2 and US11 can down-regulate the surface expression of UL18, we infected U373-MG cells expressing stably US2 or US11 (U373-MG-US2 and U373-MG-US11) and parental U373-MG cells with either a recombinant, UL18-expressing vaccinia virus (vvUL18) or a wild-type vaccinia virus (vvWT). To monitor cell surface expression of MHC class I molecules and UL18, we used mAb W6/32 and 10C7 for flow cytometry. Normal mouse IgG was used as a negative control. Although the UL18 protein was readily detected by immunoprecipitation in vvUL18-infected cells, analysis by flow cytometry showed that low levels of UL18 were expressed on the cell surface (Fig. 2GoA, c and d), a finding that agrees with previous reports (16, 21). Because cell surface expression of UL18 is a prerequisite for our study, we confirmed the cell surface expression of UL18 by surface biotinylation and immunoprecipitation. Using the 10C7 mAb, we could detect an ~67-kDa biotinylated UL18 protein from the vvUL18-infected cells, but not from the vvWT-infected cells (Fig. 2GoB, lanes 1 and 2, respectively). It is noteworthy that the biotinylation of cell surface UL18 molecules was also observed in the cells stably expressing US2, US3, US6, or US11 upon infection with vvUL18 (lanes 3–6). Control experiments indicated that surface levels of MHC class I were equal between parental U373-MG cells (uninfected) and vvWT-infected parental U373-MG cells (Figs. 2GoAa and 3Aa). As expected, the expression of endogenous MHC class I molecules on the cell surface was significantly reduced in US2- or US11-expressing cells (Figs. 2GoAb and 3Ab). These results indicate that the function of US2 or US11 for down-regulating MHC class I surface expression was not altered by wild-type vaccinia virus gene products. In contrast, UL18 surface expression was not affected by US2 or US11 (Figs. 2GoA and 3A, compare c and d).



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FIGURE 2. Resistance of UL18 to US2-mediated degradation. A, US2 does not affect the surface expression of UL18. U373-MG cells stably expressing US2 (b and d) or parental U373-MG cells (a and c) were infected with either vvUL18 (c and d) or vvWT (a and b). Cells were stained with mAb W6/32 (a and b), 10C7 (c and d), or normal mouse IgG (clg; negative control), followed by FITC-conjugated anti-mouse IgG. The uninfected (a) or mock-transfected (b) parental U373-MG cells were stained with W6/32 and used as a positive control for MHC class I expression. B, Biotinylation of cell surface UL18 molecules. Wild-type U373-MG cells (lanes 1 and 2) or cells that stably expressed US proteins (lanes 3–6) were infected with either vvWT (lane 1) or vvUL18 (lanes 2–6) and biotinylated. Immunoprecipitation and visualization were conducted as described in Materials and Methods. C, UL18 is stable in the presence of US2. Parental U373-MG cells and U373-MG-US2 stable cells were infected with vvUL18. Cells were metabolically pulse labeled for 15 min with [35S]methionine and chased with unlabeled medium for 0 and 30 min. Lysates of these cells were divided into three equal parts and immunoprecipitated with the indicated Abs.

 
To further evaluate the mechanism underlying the unique resistance of UL18 to down-regulation in the presence of both US2 and US11, we examined the susceptibility of UL18 to degradation imposed by US2 and US11. Parental U373-MG cells, U373-MG-US2 cells, and U373-MG-US11 cells were infected with vvUL18 and metabolically labeled in a pulse-chase experiment. Lysates of these cells were immunoprecipitated with 10C7, K455, and anti-US2 or anti-US11. For parental U373-MG cells, significant amounts of MHC class I were detected with K455 at the end of both the pulse and the 30-min chase (Figs. 2GoC and 3B, lanes 5 and 6). In line with the previous report (22), nearly all MHC class I molecules were degraded at the 30 min chase point in U373-MG-US2- and -US11 cells (Figs. 2GoC and 3B, lane 8). When cells were infected with vvUL18, the UL18 gene product of Mr 67 kDa was immunoprecipitated by 10C7 mAb (Figs. 2GoC and 3B, lanes 1–4). The molecular mass of UL18 was reduced to ~39 kDa by endoglycosidase H treatment (data not shown). Together with the facts that UL18 has a predicted molecular mass of 39 kDa, and UL18 has 13 potential N-glycosylation sites, these findings indicate that UL18 is immediately glycosylated in the ER as it is synthesized. Contrary to the results obtained for MHC class I molecules, neither US2 nor US11 affected the fate of UL18. That is, no US2- or US11-associated degradation of UL18 was observed (Figs. 2GoC and 3B). Immunoprecipitation with anti-US2 and anti-US11 demonstrated expression of these molecules in cells (Figs. 2GoC and 3B, lanes 11 and 12). The results suggest that UL18 possesses characteristics that protect it from US2- or US11-associated degradation.

US3 does not down-regulate the surface expression of UL18

US3 expression causes MHC class I molecules to accumulate in the ER by preventing the transport of MHC class I molecules to the cell surface (6, 7). To analyze whether US3 can also down-regulate the surface expression of UL18, we infected HeLa cells that expressed the tetracycline-inducible US3 (7) with either vvUL18 or vvWT. The expression of US3 was induced by removal of tetracycline from the culture medium for 24 h before infection. The cell surface expression of MHC class I molecules and UL18 was monitored by flow cytometry with mAb W6/32 and 10C7. Whereas a reduction in MHC class I surface expression was observed upon expression of US3, the expression of US3 did not exert an effect on the surface expression of UL18 molecules (Fig. 4GoA).



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FIGURE 4. Effect of US3 on the cell surface expression of UL18. A, US3 does not mediate down-regulation of UL18 on the cell surface. Experiments identical to those in Fig. 2GoA were performed in the presence of US3. B, US3 does not associate with UL18 molecules. HeLa cells expressing US3 were infected with either vvWT or vvUL18, labeled, and then lysed in 1% digitonin lysis buffer. The lysates were used in immunoprecipitations with anti-US3, K455, and 10C7.

 
The difference in US3 specificity for MHC class I molecules and UL18 might be due to the differential binding ability of US3 to each molecule. To test this possibility, HeLa cells expressing the tetracycline-inducible US3 were infected with vvUL18 and metabolically labeled, after which they were lysed with 1% digitonin buffer. We immunoprecipitated a 22-kDa US3 protein using anti-US3 from the induced, but not the uninduced, cells (Fig. 4GoB, lanes 4 and 1, respectively). With the K455 Ab, US3 protein coimmunoprecipitated with the MHC class I molecules (lane 5). In contrast, we did not observe coimunoprecipitation between US3 and UL18 in both anti-US3 and 10C7 immunoprecipitates (lanes 4 and 6) under our experimental conditions, implying that US3 does not bind to UL18. It appears that the 10C7 Ab does not recognize the complexed form of UL18 with {beta}2m, as does K455. This may be the reason for the lack of coimmunoprecipitation. Another possibility is that these Abs may not able to recognize a US3/UL18 complex because their epitopes are involved in binding.

Cell surface expression of UL18 is dependent on TAP, but is not influenced by US6

The HCMV US6 gene product prevents peptide loading of the MHC class I molecules by inhibiting TAP-mediated peptide translocation into the ER and consequently results in down-regulation of MHC class I molecules at the cell surface (8, 9). To examine whether US6 can down-regulate the surface expression of UL18, we infected HeLa cells that expressed the tetracycline-inducible US6 (8) with either vvUL18 or vvWT. In uninduced cells, the surface level of MHC class I molecules was not affected in the presence of vvWT (Fig. 5GoAa). When US6 expression was induced, down-regulation in surface expression of endogenous MHC class I molecules was evident in the cells (Fig. 5GoAb). These results indicate that vvWT does not affect either the surface expression of MHC class I or the function of US6 to interfere with the surface expression of MHC class I molecules. Unlike MHC class I molecules, surface expression of UL18 was not affected by US6 (Fig. 5GoA, compare c and d). This might be due to competition for TAP between US6 and UL18 or to an intrinsic property of UL18 for TAP independence.



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FIGURE 5. Differential sensitivity of UL18 to TAP inhibitors. A, US6 does not affect the cell surface expression of UL18. B, ICP47 down-regulates the expression of UL18 on the cell surface. The experimental procedure followed was identical to that described in Fig. 2GoA.

 
To further investigate this point we examined whether cell surface expression of UL18 is down-regulated by another TAP inhibitor, ICP47, the HSV immediate early protein. ICP47 inhibits peptide transport by TAP, and thus stable assembly of MHC class I molecules is blocked (23). We infected HeLa cells that expressed the tetracycline-inducible ICP47 with either vvUL18 or vvWT and performed the identical experiment as that for US6. At 12 h postinfection the cell surface expression of endogenous MHC class I molecules and UL18 was analyzed by flow cytometry. Surprisingly, unlike US6, ICP47 caused down-regulation not only of endogenous MHC class I molecules but also of UL18 on the cell surface (Fig. 5GoB, b and d, respectively). These results suggest that the surface expression of UL18 is dependent on TAP activity, but TAP inhibition by US6 is somehow disrupted in the presence of UL18.


    Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
The sequence and structural homology of UL18 to MHC class I molecules suggest that UL18 molecules are subject to attack by their kindred molecules, the US gene products, analogous to the action of the US proteins on MHC class I molecules. In this study we show that temporal expression of the US and UL18 genes partially overlaps, leaving UL18 theoretically susceptible to down-regulation mediated by the US proteins. However, unlike MHC class I molecules, the MHC class I homolog UL18 appears fully resistant to the down-regulation associated with these US gene products. Neither US2 nor US11 mediated degradation of UL18. To date, in vivo expression of UL18 in HCMV-infected cells has not been demonstrated, presumably because depletion of UL18 by US2- or US11-mediated degradation might make detection of UL18 difficult. Our data clearly rule out this hypothesis. The resistance of UL18 to US2 and US11 is not surprising, because immune evasion by US2 and US11 was proven to be allele specific even among MHC class I haplotypes. Whereas all studied murine class I products were degraded in the presence of US11, a more limited repertoire was attacked by US2 (22). With vaccinia-driven expression of US2 and US11 in either a placentally derived cell line or in xenogeneic cells stably transfected with human MHC class I alleles, HLA-C and HLA-G were resistant to MHC class I degradation (24). HLA-E also appears to be resistant to degradation associated with US2 (25).

In contrast to the other US-encoded genes, US3 transcripts were expressed at a different window of time from UL18. US3 mRNA was detected 4–12 h postinfection, confirming the immediate early nature of this gene, whereas the UL18 transcript was expressed beginning at 54 h postinfection and thereafter. US3 proteins are short-lived and present only during the first hours of infection (26). US3 and UL18 proteins are thus unlikely to coexist during infection. Besides this temporal reciprocal expression relationship, US3 did not bind UL18 molecules and thus functionally could not prevent them from leaving the ER. We have recently reported that US3 is capable of binding HLA-G, a nonclassical MHC class I molecule, as well as HLA-A, -B, and -C alleles (27), suggesting that US3 has a broad specificity for binding MHC class I alleles. Although we do not know which structure of the MHC class I molecules is recognized by US3, the demonstrated lack of coimmunoprecipitation of UL18 with US3 prompts consideration of structural attributes that might disallow either direct interaction or interactions via a molecular intermediate. Despite their amino acid sequence homology to MHC class I sequences, UL18 molecules possess a number of features that are dissimilar from those of classical class I molecules. In contrast to only one glycosylation site in MHC class I molecules, UL18 is heavily glycosylated, containing 13 potential N-linked glycosylation sites (13) that account for the different molecular mass of UL18 and the MHC class I H chain ( Figs. 2–4GoGoGo). It is possible that the carbohydrate moieties of UL18 glycoprotein interfere with the interaction between UL18 and US3. Likewise, the same interpretation can be made for the lack of binding of US2 and US11 to UL18. The analysis reported in this work provides a starting point for a more precise delineation of the elements of class I molecules that are recognized by the US proteins.



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FIGURE 3. Resistance of UL18 to US11-mediated degradation. A, US11 does not affect the surface expression of UL18. B, UL18 is stable in the presence of US11. Essentially, the same experimental procedure was used as that described in Fig. 2Go.

 
Unlike the US2, US3, and US11 proteins, US6 does not directly interact with MHC class I molecules, but shuts off the TAP-mediated peptide transport in the ER (8, 9, 10). TAP represents an important target for viral inhibition as, apart from some signal sequence-derived peptides, most class I binding peptides require transport from the cytosol to the ER. Two viral inhibitors of human TAP have been characterized, ICP47 and US6. The HSV-derived cytosolic protein ICP47 acts as a high-affinity substrate that blocks TAP by binding to its peptide binding site, thereby preventing the binding of antigenic peptides (7, 23, 28, 29). The second viral TAP inhibitor, US6, is encoded by HCMV and differs from ICP47. US6 is an ER-localized type I integral membrane protein. The luminal domain of US6 associates with TAP and is sufficient to inhibit peptide translocation without affecting peptide binding (8, 9, 10). Even though the site for US6 interaction on TAP is unknown, inhibition of peptide translocation without affecting peptide binding implies that US6 binds to the ER-exposed loops of the membrane domains of TAP rather than to the cytoplasmic domains of TAP. To date, whether UL18 is dependent on TAP for cell surface expression remains unclear. UL18 binding peptides for which a protein precursor could be identified are derived from intracellular proteins with either cytoplasmic or membrane proteins (15). This precursor-peptide relationship still does not distinguish between TAP-dependent and -independent presentation of peptides, because signal sequence-derived peptides can also be presented by MHC class I molecules on the cell surface independent of TAP molecules (30). We show here that expression of ICP47 greatly diminished the cell surface expression of UL18, demonstrating that the surface expression of UL18 occurs in a TAP-dependent fashion. Interestingly, US6 did not affect the surface expression of UL18 but did down-regulate the expression of MHC class I molecules on the cell surface. This activity markedly contrasts with the mode of action of ICP47. A possible explanation for the insensitivity of UL18 to US6 is that UL18 might interfere with the physical interaction of US6 and TAP that is necessary for US6 to function for TAP inhibition. Among our findings, the discovery that UL18 is resistant to the self-TAP inhibitor US6 but is sensitive to the nonself-TAP inhibitor ICP47 highlights how viral proteins can elegantly evolve to avoid fratricide and provides insights into both viral inhibition of TAP and peptide translocation by TAP.

The functional role of UL18 as an inhibitor of NK cell cytotoxicity remains controversial. 721.221 cells stably transfected with UL18 but selected for expression of {beta}2m were shown to be resistant to NK cell lysis (21). In contrast to this, transient expression of UL18 in human, primate, and rodent cell lines results in enhanced killing by NK cells (16). The apparent contradictory results of these studies might reflect the complexity of activating and inhibitory signals that control NK cell function. Given the facts that leukocyte Ig-like receptor-1, a ligand for UL18, binds UL18 with a 1000-fold higher affinity than host MHC class I molecules (31) and that surface expression of UL18 is not subjected to US protein-mediated down-regulation, however, it seems obvious that cell surface UL18 potentially plays a role in immune evasion. UL18 probably evolved from a host cell MHC class I gene acquired by HCMV at some point during its evolution with its human host (32). While UL18 has retained most of the structural properties of class I molecules, the unique resistance of UL18 to US-associated down-regulation indicates that UL18 possesses characteristics of structure and/or processing that distinguish it from other classical MHC class I molecules. The information presented in this study will assist in future studies aimed at deciphering the exact role of UL18 in immune recognition of HCMV-infected target cells and is likely to enhance understanding of the interplay between viruses and the immune system.


    Acknowledgments
 
We thank Pamela Bjorkman (California Institute of Technology) for UL18 cDNA.


    Footnotes
 
1 This work was supported by a grant from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (R01-1999-00143). Back

2 B.P. and H.O. contributed equally to this work. Back

3 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Kwangseog Ahn, Graduate School of Biotechnology, Korea University, 1 5-Ga, Anam-Dong, Sungbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-701, Korea. E-mail address: ksahn{at}korea.ac.kr Back

4 Abbreviations used in this paper: HCMV, human CMV; {beta}2m, {beta}2-microglobulin; UL18, unique long region protein 18; US, unique short region protein; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; HFF, human foreskin fibroblast; vvUL18, UL18-expressing vaccinia virus; vvWT, wild-type vaccinia virus. Back

Received for publication September 20, 2001. Accepted for publication January 25, 2002.


    References
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 

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