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*CYCLOSPORIN A
The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 177: 443-449.
Copyright © 2006 by The American Association of Immunologists

Novel Activities of Cyclophilin A and Cyclosporin A during HIV-1 Infection of Primary Lymphocytes and Macrophages1

Manisha Saini and Mary Jane Potash2

Molecular Virology Division, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10019


   Abstract
Top
 Abstract
Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Disclosures
 References
 
Studies conducted in cell lines indicate that cyclophilin A (CypA) is a component of HIV type 1 (HIV-1) virions, and that when CypA incorporation into virions is inhibited by treatment of infected cells with the immunosuppressive agent cyclosporin A (CsA), HIV-1 infection also is inhibited. Because HIV-1 particles assemble along a different pathway and incorporate different host proteins in macrophages than in other cell types, we investigated CypA and CsA activities in HIV-1-infected primary human macrophages, compared with primary human lymphocytes. We tested virus protein production, virion composition and infectivity, and progress through the virus life cycle under perturbation by drug treatment or mutagenesis in infected cells from multiple donors. Our findings from both primary cell types are different from that previously reported in transformed cells and show that the amount of CypA incorporated into virions is variable and that CsA inhibits HIV-1 infection at both early and late phases of virus replication, the stage affected is determined by the sequence of HIV-1 Gag. Because the cell type infected determines the identity of host proteins active in HIV-1 replication and can influence the activity of some viral inhibitors, infection of transformed cells may not recapitulate infection of the native targets of HIV-1.


   Introduction
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Disclosures
 References
 
Much of our extensive knowledge of HIV type 1 (HIV-1)3 biology and regulation has been obtained during virus infection or expression in transformed cells in culture. In many respects, primary macrophages provide a very different cellular environment for HIV-1 replication, and as a result, specific aspects of the virus–host cell interaction are different. For example, expression of CD4 and CXCR4 is sufficient to mediate virus entry and fusion and productive infection of many transformed human cells (1); however, laboratory-adapted X4 HIV-1 does not productively infect primary CD4-CXCR4-bearing human macrophages, and the restriction has been mapped, in part, to postentry events in virus replication (2, 3). Despite the use of CCR5 as a coreceptor on both lymphocytes and macrophages, R5 HIV-1 infection of lymphocytes can be blocked by the native ligands of CCR5 but infection of macrophages proceeds unimpeded (4, 5, 6). Viral transcription also has a cell lineage-specific component, the C/EBP binding sites in the HIV-1 long terminal repeat are essential for replication in primary macrophages but dispensable for replication in primary lymphocytes (7). At the final stage of the viral life cycle, macrophages display their most characteristic trait; they direct HIV-1 assembly to intracellular membranes, so that the viruses bud predominantly into internal membrane-bound vesicles, rather than the plasma membrane as in lymphocytes (8). This distinction determines the cellular proteins that are incorporated into the particle. Thus, the virions produced by the two major targets of HIV-1 infection, lymphocytes and macrophages, differ in composition. In principle, this difference can influence infectivity, virulence, and sensitivity to antiviral intervention.

Cyclophilin A (CypA) is a peptidyl-prolyl isomerase of cellular origin that is specifically incorporated into HIV-1 virions through a well-defined interaction with Gag in capsids (9, 10). Treatment of transformed cells with drugs that interfere with this interaction, notably the immunosuppressive agent, cyclosporin A (CsA), reduces the incorporation of CypA into virions and inhibits HIV-1 infection (10, 11, 12, 13). Because of the differences between HIV-1 assembly in macrophages and assembly in other cell types, we investigated the incorporation of CypA in virions from infected primary human macrophages, compared with infected PBLs.

Using the specific requirements for assembly of replication competent HIV-1 in transformed cells in culture as a basis, we analyzed virion composition and infectivity as perturbed by mutation or pharmacological intervention with reference to the progress of the viral life cycle in primary cells. Contrary to expectation, our studies demonstrate that the major distinction among host cell types in these elements of HIV-1 infection lies between transformed cells on the one hand and both primary lymphocytes and macrophages on the other hand. We report that CypA–Gag interactions, CsA sensitivity, and the biology of mutations that disrupt these effects are different in primary cells than was reported previously in various transformed human cell lines. Our studies suggest caution in interpreting that activity of HIV-1 inhibitors solely by test of their effects on virus replication in transformed host cells.


   Materials and Methods
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
Results
 Discussion
 Disclosures
 References
 
Cells

Human PBLs and monocytes were obtained by centrifugal elutriation from blood collected from >20 healthy individuals under an exemption from Institutional Review Board review. CEM and 293T cells were obtained from the AIDS Research Reagent Repository (Rockville, MD). PBLs were stimulated with 5 µg/ml PHA (Sigma-Aldrich) in RPMI 1640 medium containing 10% FBS (Omega Scientific) and 1 ng/ml IL-2 (R&D Systems) for 48 h and then cultured without PHA. Monocytes were induced to differentiate to macrophages by culture in 10% human serum (Cambrex) and 10% giant cell tumor-conditioned medium (BioVeris) in DMEM for 5 days and thereafter were cultured in DMEM containing 10% FBS.

Viruses

NL4-3 was propagated in CEM cells and isolated during acute infection. Subtype A/E CM235 was obtained from Dr. N. Michael (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Rockville, MD) through the AIDS Research Reagent Repository and was propagated in PBLs and isolated during acute infection. pA224E, a plasmid encoding CypA-resistant mutant of NL4-3 was a gift from Dr. J. Luban (Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY). pNLHXADA-GP was a gift from Dr. L. Ratner (Washington University, St. Louis, MO). The plasmids were propagated in DH5{alpha} cells and transfected into 293T cells using LipofectAMINE (Invitrogen Life Technologies) according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and infectious virions were isolated from supernatant 48 and 72 h after transfection. ADA was a gift from Dr. H.E. Gendelman (University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE) and was propagated exclusively in primary macrophages and isolated from their supernatants. A mutant of NLHXADA-GP carrying the A224E mutation was prepared by PCR, carrying out the single point mutation of C to A so as to change the amino acid from alanine to glutamic acid at position 224 of the gag protein, and the mutation was confirmed by sequencing. The mutation was conducted by amplifying the 4.3-kb fragment of the plasmid between SphI and EcoRI, with the mutation in the forward primer MUT5 (5'-TCCAGTGCATGCAGGGCCTATTGAACCAGGCCAGATGAG-3'). The reverse primer NL5727 (5'-TTGTTGCAGAATTCTTATGGCTTCCAC-3') contained the EcoRI site. The restriction sites are underlined, and the point mutation is mentioned in bold letters in the primers. The PCR was conducted using AccuPrime Pfx DNA polymerase (Invitrogen Life Technologies) by denaturing the template at 95°C for 2 min initially and 30 s in the subsequent cycles, annealing at 55°C for 30 s and polymerization at 68°C for 4.5 min for 30 cycles, followed by a 7-min extension at 68°C. The PCR product was digested with SphI and EcoRI and ligated with similarly digested and purified NLHXADA-GP. The new plasmid carrying the point mutation was called GP-M. The mutation was confirmed by sequencing. The p24 content of all virus stocks was determined by ELISA using the HIV-1 p24 Ag assay (Beckman Coulter), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For analysis of infection by HIV-1 DNA levels by PCR, the virus inoculum was treated with DNase I as described before infection (3).

Infection

PBLs or monocyte-derived macrophage (MDMs) were infected with various HIV-1 at 0.1 pg p24 per cell for 1–2 h at 37°C, washed, and then cultured in the absence or presence of 2.5 µM CsA (Sigma-Aldrich or Calbiochem). Cells and cell supernatants were harvested at the times indicated for evaluation of p24 and CypA content, HIV-1 DNA or RNA, or infectious HIV-1.

RT and PCR

Cells were collected at the indicated time points, and genomic DNA was prepared using DNAzol (Invitrogen Life Technologies). DNA content was standardized by amplification of the single-copy cellular beta-globin gene using primers as described (3). To detect HIV-1 DNA, a 115-bp region of gag was amplified using primers SK38 (5'-ATAATCCACCTATCCCAGTAGGAGAAAT-3') and SK39 (5'-TTTGGTCCTTGTCTTATGTCCAGAATGC-3'), electrophoresised, blotted, and probed using 32P-labeled SK19 (5'-ATCCTGGGATTAAATAAAATAGTAAGAATGTATAGCCCTAC-3') (14) as described (3). Alternatively, total RNA was isolated using TRIzol (Invitrogen Life Technologies) by following the manufacturer’s instructions. Four micrograms of the RNA was used to prepare cDNA (Superscript First Strand synthesis kit for RT-PCR; Invitrogen Life Technologies) from the doubly spliced vif message of HIV using the primer VFSP (5'-AACCAGTCCTTAGCTTTCCTTGAAATATAC-3'). Two microliters of the cDNA was used to amplify a 374-bp region of the vif message using the forward primer aligning in the long terminal repeat region, NL616 (5'-GTGTGGAAAATCTCTAGCAGTGGCGC-3'), and the reverse primer VFSP, and probed with VF5071 (5'-GGCAAGTAGACAGGATGAGGA-3').

Analysis of virion protein composition

Cell supernatants containing HIV-1 were centrifuged at 300 x g, and the virions in the cell-free medium was sedimented at 19,500 rpm in a rotor (model J20.1; Beckman Coulter) for 2 h. The pellet was either analyzed directly or used for a second round of purification through sucrose gradient. A discontinuous sucrose gradient of 600 µl of 30%, 200 µl of 20% containing 0.5% Triton X-100, and 200 µl of 10% was layered on top of the concentrated virus sample and centrifuged at 14,000 rpm in a centrifuge (model 5402; Eppendorf) at 4°C for 3 h. The virion pellets were resuspended in PBS, titered for p24 content, and then run on 15% SDS-PAGE by loading 10–50 ng of p24; the bands were transferred to a polyvinylidene difluoride (Millipore) membrane. Bands were visualized by Western blotting using standard procedure and staining with anti-CypA Ab (Affinity BioReagents), HRP-conjugated anti-human Ab, and the detection by chemiluminescence using p-coumaric acid (4-hydroxycinnamic acid; Sigma-Aldrich) and luminol (5-amino-2,3-dihydro-1,4-pthalazinedione; Sigma-Aldrich). The membrane was stripped with 0.2 M sodium hydroxide for 5 min, washed with PBS, and used to detect p24 protein using a mouse monoclonal anti-HIV-1 CA (catalog no. 183-H12-5C) provided by Dr. B. Chesebro (Rocky Mountain National Laboratories, Hamilton, MT) and Dr. K. Wehry (Rocky Mountain National Laboratories, Hamilton, MT) through the AIDS Research Reagent Repository.

MAGI assay

The MAGI assay was conducted as described by Kimpton and Emerman (15) using virions isolated from infected cells and standardized by p24 content. MAGI cells were provided by Dr. M. Emerman (University of Washington, Seattle, WA). For assay of infectivity of R5 viruses, MAGI-CCR5 cells, provided by Dr. J. Overbaugh (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), were used. Both cells lines were distributed by the AIDS Research Reagent Repository.


   Results
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
Discussion
 Disclosures
 References
 
CypA incorporation into virions produced by HIV-1-infected primary macrophages and lymphocytes

We investigated the CypA incorporation into virions isolated from NL4-3-infected PBLs or ADA-infected MDMs by Western blot. In this study, all samples for Western blot are first standardized by p24 content by ELISA to facilitate a direct comparison of samples. MDMs obtained from three donors and PBLs from two of the same donors were infected in culture, and virions isolated at different times after infection were compared for CypA content (Fig. 1). The CypA incorporation into virions was variable, depending on the cell donor and time after infection, and virions from MDM contained less CypA (Fig. 1A) than those from PBLs from the same donors (Fig. 1B). CypA content appeared to decrease over the course of infection of MDM but increase over the course of infection of PBLs (see Fig. 2B). This variable incorporation suggested that the association of CypA with Gag is not tightly regulated in primary cells and may differ from that in transformed cells (16).


Figure 1
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  		FIGURE 1. CypA content in virions produced by HIV-1-infected MDMs or PBLs. Virions were isolated from culture supernatants of ADA-infected MDM from three different donors at two time points or of NL4-3-infected PBLs from two different donors on day 7 after infection and the capsid Ag p24 content was determined by ELISA. From 20 to 100 ng p24 of MDM-derived virions (A), or 20–60 ng p24 of PBL-derived virions (B) were loaded per lane as indicated and subjected to electrophoresis and Western blot, staining for CyA.

 

Figure 2
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  		FIGURE 2. CypA content in virions produced by HIV-1-infected MDMs or PBLs after culture in CsA. A, NL4–3-infected CEM cells, NL4-3-infected PBLs, and ADA-infected MDMs were cultured in the absence or presence of 2.5 µM CsA. Virions from infected cells were isolated and analyzed by Western blot as described in the legend to Fig. 1. B, Virions were isolated from NL4-3-infected PBLs cultured in the absence and presence of CsA at the times indicated, and a portion were subjected to sedimentation through a discontinuous sucrose density gradient before electrophoresis and Western blotting. Blots were stained first with an anti-CypA antiserum, then stripped and stained with an anti-CA mAb.

 
We then used pharmacological intervention with CsA to inhibit the Gag–CypA association. Cell viability was tested during culture of both uninfected and HIV-1-infected PBLs and MDMs in the absence and presence of CsA. CsA was not toxic under the conditions used in this study in which it is only added to cells after culture in mitogen or differentiation factors (not shown). We exposed MDMs to ADA or to NLHXADA-GP, a molecular clone that carries the ADA V3 region on the background of NL4–3 Gag-Pol (17) for 2 h, washed the cells, and then cultured them in the presence of CsA; this experimental format was designed to focus on postbinding events in virus replication. During infection in culture, MDMs retain most of the capsid protein produced inside cells, so we tested the levels of both intracellular and extracellular p24; (Table I). The replication of both viruses was inhibited up to 5000-fold by CsA. We then tested the generality of this observation by using MDMs from four different donors for infection by ADA, as modulated by culture in CsA (Table II). In each case, CsA was a potent inhibitor of infection. Using cells from >10 different donors and multiple HIV-1 stocks, we have found that CsA consistently inhibits p24 expression by primary MDMsin culture (data not shown). The extent of inhibition of viral protein production by infected MDMs was significantly greater than that previously reported for infected transformed cell lines, which was on the order of 3- to 10-fold (12) or that previously reported for infected PBLs using the CsA analog, SDZ MIN 811, that inhibited 4- to 20-fold (18). This consistent inhibition of HIV-1 replication by CsA was not reflected in the variable levels of CypA found in virions from infected primary cells (Fig. 1), raising the possibility that CypA incorporation is not the only event in virus infection sensitive to CsA. To directly link these physiological findings to virion composition, the CypA content of virions isolated from infected PBLs or MDMs that had been cultured in the presence or absence of CsA was determined. Cells were obtained from two different donors. Virions from infected transformed CEM cells were run in parallel, all samples were standardized by p24 content (Fig. 2A). Consistent with previous studies, culture of infected CEM cells in CsA significantly inhibited CypA incorporation into virions. In contrast, there was little to no inhibition of CypA incorporation into virions derived from primary cells. Despite standardization by p24 content, virions from highly viable MDMs seemed to show enhanced incorporation of CypA after CsA treatment. To evaluate a more highly purified population of virions for CypA content, we repeated this experiment using PBLs from another donor and subjected virions to sucrose density gradient sedimentation (Fig. 2B). Based on p24 content, sucrose gradient-purified virions had more CypA than the starting virion population. However, CsA treatment of virion-producing cells increased rather than decreased CypA content, and gradient purification further increased the relative CypA content of virions. These studies from a total of five different macrophage and five different PBL donors indicate the CypA incorporation into virions by primary lymphocytes and macrophages is regulated differently than those of transformed cells


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  		Table I. CsA stably inhibits infection of MDM using two different strains of HIV-1a

 

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  		Table II. CsA inhibits HIV-1 infection of primary macrophagesa

 
Many previous studies have shown that the CypA–Gag association, and thus CypA virion incorporation, is blocked by CsA and that this reduction in the CypA content of virions renders them less infectious (10, 12, 13). Our finding in primary cells that CsA is a potent inhibitor of HIV-1 infection but does not decrease CypA content of virions is inconsistent with this observation. To directly test the proposal, we isolated virions from infected cells cultured in the presence or absence of CsA and tested their infectivity by MAGI assay of single cycle infection or by assay of p24 production by infected PBL (Fig. 3). When standardized by p24 levels, several different HIV-1 produced in the presence of CsA were equally as infectious as those produced without inhibitor. CsA derived HIV-1 of both subtype B and A/E or R5 and X4 tropism were found to be infectious. Similar results have been obtained using three different cell donors and virus stocks. To better understand this apparent CypA independence but CsA sensitivity of HIV-1 infection of primary cells, we used an HIV-1 mutated in the CypA binding region.


Figure 3
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  		FIGURE 3. Infectivity of virions isolated from HIV-1-infected, CypA-treated PBLs. Virions produced by HIV-1-infected PBLs cultured in the absence or presence of CsA were standardized by p24 content and tested for infectivity by MAGI assay (A) or by infection of PBLs and measurement of production of core Ag p24 (B).

 
Sites of restriction by CsA treatment of HIV-1-infected primary cells as a function of Gag sequence

To clarify the link between CsA inhibition and CypA in HIV-1-infected primary cells, we used A224E, an NL4–3 variant that emerged after propagation in the presence of CsA but that still encapsidates CypA into virions. This point mutation replaces an uncharged residue with a charged residue in a CypA binding region of Gag and has been shown to render HIV-1 infection in transformed Jurkat cells resistant to CsA and infection in transformed CEM or MAGI cells dependent on CsA (12, 13, 16). We first tested the replication of A224E, compared with NL4-3 by culture of infected PBLs in the absence and presence of CsA and assay of extracellular p24 over time (Fig. 4A). Surprisingly, A224E replication in PBLs was as sensitive to CsA inhibition as that of wild-type NL4-3. Unlike CEM or MAGI cells, PBL infection by A224E was neither dependent nor enhanced by CsA; unlike Jurkat, PBL infection was not resistant to CsA. Similar results were obtained using PBLs from three other donors (data not shown). Analogous studies performed in MDMs using an A224E mutation in NLHXADA-GP yielded similar findings (Fig. 4B) in MDMs from some, but not all, donors, so further studies here will be restricted to A224E replication in PBL. The results of A224E infection reveal a CsA-sensitive postentry phase in HIV-1 replication in primary cells absent from transformed T cell lines.


Figure 4
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  		FIGURE 4. Efficiency of infection of PBLs or MDMs by wild-type or A224E mutated HIV-1 as perturbed by culture in CsA. PBLs were infected with NL4–3 or A224E (A), and MDMs were infected by NLHXADA-GP or NLHXADA-GP/A224E (B) and then cultured in the absence or presence of CsA. Cells or supernatants were harvested at the indicated times after infection, supernatants were replaced by fresh medium, and the extracellular p24 content from PBLs or the intracellular p24 content of MDMs was determined by Elisa.

 
To investigate the basis of this inhibition by CsA, we tested viral DNA synthesis over time after infection by PCR, amplifying a region in gag from NL4-3- and A224E-infected PBLs or ADA-infected MDMs cultured in the absence or presence of CsA (Fig. 5). Consistent with inhibition of synthesis of viral protein, NL4-3 DNA synthesis in PBLs and ADA DNA synthesis in MDMs was inhibited by CsA treatment. In contrast, A224E DNA synthesis was not affected by CsA treatment. To probe the next phase of the A224E life cycle in PBL, we tested viral RNA production by RT-PCR, amplifying the singly spliced vif mRNA in PBL infected and cultured under the same conditions (Fig. 6). Once again, there was a clear distinction between NL4-3 infection and A224E infection; NL4–3 RNA production was almost completely inhibited by CsA treatment, but A224E transcription was less sensitive to CsA, declining only at the later time points relative to untreated infected cells. These findings narrow the possible activities of CsA in A224E-infected cells either to inhibition of viral protein production or to impairment of the infectivity of progeny virus. To distinguish a block in virus assembly or export from a block in virus protein production. we repeated the experiment shown in Fig. 4A and measured both extracellular and intracellular p24 in infected PBLs (Fig. 7). We found that CsA inhibited A224E and NL4-3 p24 accumulation in both compartments, ruling out a block to virion export, but consistent with a block at or near the level of translation. We tested the infectivity of A224E virions produced in the absence and presence of CsA, with NL4-3 run in parallel for reference, standardizing infectious dose by p24 content (Fig. 8). Although CsA is a potent inhibitor of HIV-1 infection in PBLs and greatly reduces the production of progeny virions, it had little effect upon the infectivity of the progeny virus produced. It should be noted that CsA was shown to enhance A224E replication in MAGI cells (12, 13, 16), as confirmed in the assay performed in this study. Taken as a whole, the findings reported in this study indicate that CsA inhibits an early phase in HIV-1 replication in primary cells before reverse transcription, and that this sensitivity is controlled by Gag. Mutants in Gag that evade the first block are subject to a second phase of inhibition by CsA at the level of viral protein production.


Figure 5
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  		FIGURE 5. Viral DNA synthesis by HIV-1-infected PBLs or MDMs as perturbed by culture in CsA. PBLs were infected by DNase-treated NL4-3 or A224E (A) or MDMs were infected by DNase-treated ADA (B) and then cultured in the absence or presence of CsA. Cells were harvested at the indicated times after infection, DNA was isolated and subjected to PCR amplification of regions in the cellular beta-globin gene or the HIV-1 gag gene. The beta-globin amplicon was visualized by ethidium bromide staining, and the gag amplicon was visualized by hybridization with radiolabeled probe.

 

Figure 6
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  		FIGURE 6. Viral RNA synthesis by HIV-1-infected PBLs as perturbed by culture in CsA. PBLs were infected by NL4-3 or A224E and then cultured in the absence or presence of CsA. Total cellular RNA was isolated at the indicated times, and a fixed amount of RNA was subjected to RT-PCR, amplifying a region in the singly spliced viral vif mRNA. The vif amplicon was visualized by hybridization with a radiolabeled probe.

 

Figure 7
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  		FIGURE 7. Efficiency of viral protein export from PBLs infected by wild-type or A224E-mutated HIV-1 as perturbed by culture in CsA. PBLs were infected by NL4-3 (A and C) or A224E (B and D) and then cultured in triplicate in the absence or presence of CsA. Cells and supernatants were harvested at the times indicated and extracellular (A and B) or intracellular p24 (C and D) were measured by ELISA. Means ± SDs are shown.

 

Figure 8
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  		FIGURE 8. Infectivity of virions isolated from NL4–3 or A224E-infected, CsA-treated PBLs. PBLs were infected by A224E and then cultured in the absence or presence of CsA. A, Progeny virions were sedimented from culture supernatants and then used to infect MAGI cells, and the MAGI assay itself was conducted in the absence or presence of CsA, because CsA was shown to enhance A224E replication in these cells (12 ). B, Alternatively, infected PBLs were cultured in the absence or presence of CsA, and their progeny virus was used to infect another PBL culture in the absence of CsA. At the times indicated, culture medium was harvested and replaced, and infection was monitored by measurement of extracellular p24 by ELISA.

 

   Discussion
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
Disclosures
 References
 
Our results demonstrate that HIV-1 replication in primary cells is sensitive to the multifunctional inhibitor CsA during two processes: before reverse transcription and at protein production, the phase affected depends on sequences within Gag. Inhibition of virus production appears to be independent of CypA, and CypA itself is variably associated with virions. These findings are quite different from earlier studies of HIV-1 infectivity regarding a requirement for incorporation of CypA into virions for its function (19), but are, in part, consistent with recent studies using transformed cells that place the major function for CypA at early but not late stages of HIV-1 replication (20, 21). Our work extends these studies by suggesting that the interaction of Gag with cellular proteins in many transformed cell lines does not predict these interactions in primary cells and opens the possibility that antiviral interventions proceed in the native target cells of HIV-1 differently than in transformed cells.

HIV-1 assembly and virion content are different in infected macrophages than other cell types. Virions assemble in late endosomes in macrophages and contain cellular proteins characteristic of this compartment, LAMP-1, CD81, and CD82 rather than cell surface markers like CD11a or CD14 (22, 23); virions exit the cell through exocytosis. In contrast, in primary and transformed T cells, virion components assemble at and bud directly from the plasma membrane. We investigated whether CypA incorporation may also distinguish HIV-1 virions produced by infected macrophages from those produced by lymphocytes. Contrary to expectation, both primary lymphocytes and macrophages produced virions with low and variable levels of CypA; a virion composition different from that observed from infection of transformed cells in culture (10, 11, 12, 13). Our observation that PBL- or MDM-derived infectious HIV-1 virions sometimes contain little to no CypA is supported by recent studies showing that transformed cells lacking CypA can produce infectious HIV-1 virions (21).

These results question the involvement of CypA in HIV-1 infection of primary cells, however they pertain only to late stages of virus assembly. CsA is a multifunctional immunosuppressive agent (24) that was shown to disrupt the association between Gag and CypA and has frequently been used to probe this protein–protein interaction. We used untreated virus for infection and then cultured infected PBLs or MDMs in the absence or presence of CsA to investigate the sensitivity of early events in HIV-1 replication. This approach revealed a profound block at or before reverse transcription of wild-type HIV-1 in both lymphocytes and macrophages, consistent with the block described in transformed cells (19). Although the extent of the defect is not precisely quantified, CsA appears to exert a greater effect upon infection of primary cells than the 3- to 10-fold reduction observed in most transformed cells (13, 19). In the absence of efficient viral DNA synthesis, later synthesis of viral RNA and protein also was greatly reduced in primary cells. However, CsA treatment of infected primary cells not only did not reduce the CypA content of virions, but also, in some cases, increased CypA content of virions, dissociating the inhibitory activity of CsA from the CA-driven incorporation of CypA into virions.

Although CsA treatment greatly reduces the quantity of virions produced by PBLs or MDMs by inhibiting events before wild-type viral DNA synthesis, the inhibition is not absolute, and the small quantity of progeny virus that is produced has unimpaired infectivity. This is a clear demonstration that the major effect of CsA on wild-type HIV-1 is felt in the target cell and not in the virus-producing cell. Results reaching the same conclusion by different means have been obtained in some transformed cells (20, 21). Our studies do not permit us to unambiguously identify the CsA-sensitive step early in infection. Virion uncoating has been proposed as a CypA-dependent, CsA-sensitive step in HIV-1 replication in transformed cells by some investigators (19) but has been ruled out by others (25, 26). Several different cell and in vitro systems were used for these studies. Because viral mutants in the CypA binding region of Gag have been shown to behave differently in different transformed cells, this distinction between experimental approaches can be biologically significant (13, 16, 21). An independent indication of fundamental differences among model systems is the observation that a viral vector incorporating Gag from a macrophage-tropic HIV-1 has reduced sensitivity to CsA in certain human and simian cell lines (27), while the present study shows that two macrophage-tropic HIV-1 are profoundly inhibited by CsA during replication in primary human macrophages.

Our studies strongly indicate that there are intrinsic differences between HIV-1 virion infectivity and production in primary lymphocytes and those in transformed cells; this is most clearly seen in infection by the Gag mutant A224E. A224E infection of PBLs can be inhibited by CsA at the stage of production of viral protein. Viral DNA and RNA synthesis are unaffected by treatment of infected cells with CsA. This behavior is strikingly different from that described during infection or transfection of transformed cells, in which A224E is resistant to CsA (12, 13, 16) and also is different from PBL infection by wild-type NL4-3 in which an early event in virus replication is sensitive to CsA. These findings indicate that factors that distinguish primary from transformed lymphocytes govern a critical interaction with HIV-1 Gag during viral protein production. In addition, the demonstration of CsA sensitivity of A224E replication, deemed CsA resistant (12, 13, 16), indicates that the activity of HIV-1 inhibitors is best evaluated in primary host cells of the virus.

Indeed, natural experiments are consistent with the ability of CsA to block HIV-1 infection in its human host. Because of the widespread use of CsA as an immunosuppressive agent during organ transplant, data have been collected on the course of HIV-1 infection in patients under CsA treatment. HIV-1-infected transplant recipients receiving CsA were found to have a significantly reduced risk of progression to AIDS, compared with similar patients not treated with CsA (28). It is possible that this protective effect is due to the block in virus infection of primary cells demonstrated in this study.

The present study, like many others, indicates that cell type-specific factors can greatly influence the outcome of HIV-1 infection. One such factor is APOBEC3G, which was shown to antagonize the activity of HIV-1 Vif; its expression was postulated to underlie the difference among some target cells lines in their susceptibility to Vif-negative HIV-1 (29). Curiously, although HIV-2 Vif can complement Vif-negative HIV-1 (30), it is poorly antagonized by APOBEC3G, and cell lines expressing APOBEC3G can be susceptible to Vif-negative HIV-2 but not to Vif-negative HIV-1 (31). Different species-specific host restriction factors have been proposed to interact with the CypA-binding domain of CA during early phases of HIV-1 infection of certain nonpermissive simian cells (21, 32, 33). The analogous human factor, TRIM 5-{alpha}, also was postulated to act through CypA, but recent studies demonstrate its independence from CypA in human cells (34). This observation underscores the difficulties of extrapolating HIV-1 behavior from model systems to human lymphocytes. Our findings of the activities of CypA and CsA during early and late stages of HIV-1 infection of primary lymphocytes and macrophages recommend reevaluation of the interactions of viral proteins with host proteins in the native targets of HIV-1 infection.


   Acknowledgments
 
We thank W. Chao for expert advice, Dr. D. J. Volsky for invaluable discussions, and I. Totillo for manuscript preparation. We also thank the following individuals for gifts of reagents: Dr. J. Luban for pA224E, Dr. L. Ratner for pNLHXADA-GP, Dr. H. E. Gendelman for ADA, Dr. B. Chesebro and Dr. K. Wehry for hybridoma 183-H12-56, Dr. M. Emerman for MAGI cells, Dr. N. Michael for CM235, and Dr. J. Overbaugh for CCR5 MAGI cells. The last four reagents were distributed through the AIDS Research Reagent Repository.


   Disclosures
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Disclosures
References
 
The authors have no financial conflict of interest.


   Footnotes
 
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

1 This work was supported by Public Health Service Grants NS39191 and NS43110. Back

2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Mary Jane Potash, Molecular Virology Division, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 432 West 58th Street, New York, NY 10019. E-mail address: mjp6{at}columbia.edu Back

3 Abbreviations used in this paper: HIV-1, HIV type 1; CypA, cyclophilin A; CsA, cyclosporin A; MDM, monocyte-derived macrophage. Back

Received for publication December 13, 2005. Accepted for publication April 7, 2006.


   References
Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 Disclosures
 References
 

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