Abstract
High level immune activation and apoptosis represent a hallmark of HIV-1 infection that is absent from non-pathogenic SIV infections. Recently, we reported that nef alleles from most primate lentiviruses, including HIV-2, down-modulate TCR-CD3 from HIV- or SIV-infected human and sooty mangabey T-cells, thereby blocking their responsiveness to activation (Cell 2006, 125:1055). In contrast, nef alleles from HIV-1 and a subset of closely related SIVs fail to down-regulate TCR-CD3 and to inhibit activation-induced cell death. Thus, differences in Nef function likely provide a mechanism for the varying levels of immune activation observed in pathogenic and non-pathogenic primate lentiviral infections. To further assess the role Nef funtion in vivo we functionally characterized nef alleles derived from 11 SIVsmm-infected mangabeys with >500 CD4+ T-cells/μl and from 15 animals showing a substantial loss of CD4+ T-cells. Our results showed that nef alleles from sooty mangabeys with low CD4+ T cells counts exhibited significantly reduced activity in TCR-CD3 and class I MHC (MHC-I) down-modulation, compared to those derived from animals with normal CD4+ T counts. Thus, our data strongly suggest that the ability of Nef (i) to down-modulate TCR-CD3 and to prevent programmed cell death and (ii) to down-regulate MHC-I to reduce CTL lysis of virally infected CD4+ T cells helps the natural hosts of SIV infection to maintain normal CD4+ T cell counts despite high levels of viral replication.
Highlights
Michael Schindler1, Jan Münch1, Olaf Kutsch2, Hui Li2, Mario L Santiago2, Frederic Bibollet-Ruche2, Michaela C Müller-Trutwin3, Francis J Novembre4, Martine Peeters5, Valerie Courgnaud5, Elizabeth Bailes6, Pierre Roques7, Donald L Sodora8, Paul Sharp6, Guido Silvestri4,9, Beatrice H Hahn2 and
High level immune activation and apoptosis represent a hallmark of HIV-1 infection that is absent from non-pathogenic SIV infections
Nef alleles from HIV-1 and a subset of closely related SIVs fail to down-regulate TCR-CD3 and to inhibit activation-induced cell death
Summary
Michael Schindler1, Jan Münch1, Olaf Kutsch2, Hui Li2, Mario L Santiago2, Frederic Bibollet-Ruche2, Michaela C Müller-Trutwin3, Francis J Novembre4, Martine Peeters5, Valerie Courgnaud5, Elizabeth Bailes6, Pierre Roques7, Donald L Sodora8, Paul Sharp6, Guido Silvestri4,9, Beatrice H Hahn2 and. CD4+ T cell depletion in natural SIV infection Michael Schindler1, Jan Münch1, Olaf Kutsch2, Hui Li2, Mario L Santiago2, Frederic Bibollet-Ruche2, Michaela C Müller-Trutwin3, Francis J Novembre4, Martine Peeters5, Valerie Courgnaud5, Elizabeth Bailes6, Pierre Roques7, Donald L Sodora8, Paul Sharp6, Guido Silvestri4,9, Beatrice H Hahn2 and Address: 1Institute of Virology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, 2Departments of Medicine and Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 3Unité de Biologie des Rétrovirus, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, 4Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 5Institut de recherché pour le developpment, Laboratory Rétrovirus UR36, Montpellier, France, 6Institute of Genetics, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK, 7Dép.
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