P2Y2 purinergic receptor is induced following human cytomegalovirus infection and its activity is required for efficient viral replication

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saisai Chen ◽  
Thomas Shenk ◽  
Maciej T. Nogalski

AbstractHuman cytomegalovirus (HCMV) manipulates many aspects of host cell biology to create an intracellular milieu optimally supportive of its replication and spread. The current study reveals a role for purinergic signaling in HCMV infection. The levels of several components of the purinergic signaling system, including the P2Y2 receptor, were altered in HCMV-infected fibroblasts. P2Y2 receptor RNA and protein are strongly induced following infection. Pharmacological inhibition of receptor activity or knockdown of receptor expression markedly reduced the production of infectious HCMV progeny. When P2Y2 activity was inhibited, the accumulation of most viral RNAs tested and viral DNA was reduced. In addition, the level of cytosolic calcium within infected cells was reduced when P2Y2 signaling was blocked. The HCMV-coded UL37x1 protein was previously shown to induce calcium flux from the smooth endoplasmic reticulum to the cytosol, and the present study demonstrates that P2Y2 function is required for this mobilization. We conclude that P2Y2 supports the production of HCMV progeny, possibly at multiple points within the viral replication cycle that interface with signaling pathways induced by the purinergic receptor.ImportanceHCMV infection is ubiquitous and can cause life-threatening disease in immunocompromised patients, debilitating birth defects in newborns, and has been increasingly associated with a wide range of chronic conditions. Such broad clinical implications result from the modulation of multiple host cell processes. This study documents that cellular purinergic signaling is usurped in HCMV-infected cells and that the function of this signaling axis is critical for efficient HCMV infection. Therefore, we speculate that blocking P2Y2 receptor activity has the potential to become an attractive novel treatment option for HCMV infection.

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (38) ◽  
pp. 18971-18982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saisai Chen ◽  
Thomas Shenk ◽  
Maciej T. Nogalski

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) manipulates many aspects of host cell biology to create an intracellular milieu optimally supportive of its replication and spread. Our study reveals that levels of several components of the purinergic signaling system, including the P2Y2 and P2X5 receptors, are elevated in HCMV-infected fibroblasts. Knockdown and drug treatment experiments demonstrated that P2Y2 enhances the yield of virus, whereas P2X5 reduces HCMV production. The HCMV IE1 protein induces P2Y2 expression; and P2Y2-mediated signaling is important for efficient HCMV gene expression, DNA synthesis, and the production of infectious HCMV progeny. P2Y2 cooperates with the viral UL37x1 protein to regulate cystolic Ca2+ levels. P2Y2 also regulates PI3K/Akt signaling and infected cell motility. Thus, P2Y2 functions at multiple points within the viral replication cycle to support the efficient production of HCMV progeny, and it may facilitate in vivo viral spread through its role in cell migration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Goodwin ◽  
Joshua Munger

ABSTRACTHuman cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus that causes disease in immunosuppressed populations. HCMV has a complex relationship with innate immune signaling pathways. Specifically, HCMV has been found to block some aspects of inflammatory signaling while benefiting from others. Through analysis of knockout cell lines targeting the NF-κB regulatory kinases IκB kinase α (IKKα) and IKKβ, we find that the IKKs are host restriction factors that contribute to cytokine-mediated resistance to viral infection, limit the initiation of HCMV infection, and attenuate viral cell-to-cell spread. The HCMV UL26 protein is a viral immune modulator important for HCMV infection that has been shown to inhibit host cell NF-κB signaling, yet it has remained unclear how UL26-mediated NF-κB modulation contributes to infection. Here, we find that UL26 modulation of NF-κB signaling is separable from its contribution to high-titer viral replication. However, we find that IKKβ is required for the induction of cytokine expression associated with ΔUL26 infection. Collectively, our data indicate that the IKKs restrict infection but HCMV targets their signaling to modulate the cellular inflammatory environment.IMPORTANCEInnate immune signaling is a critical defense against viral infection and represents a central host-virus interaction that frequently determines the outcomes of infections. NF-κB signaling is an essential component of innate immunity that is extensively modulated by HCMV, a significant cause of morbidity in neonates and immunosuppressed individuals. However, the roles that various facets of NF-κB signaling play during HCMV infection have remained elusive. We find that the two major regulatory kinases in this pathway, IKKα and IKKβ, limit the initiation of infection, viral replication, and cell-to-cell spread. In addition, our results indicate that these kinases contribute differently to the host cell response to infection in the absence of a virally encoded NF-κB inhibitor, UL26. Given the importance of NF-κB in viral infection, elucidating the contributions of various NF-κB constituents to infection is an essential first step toward the possibility of targeting this pathway therapeutically.


2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (19) ◽  
pp. 10016-10027 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa P. Stropes ◽  
Olivia D. Schneider ◽  
William A. Zagorski ◽  
Jeanette L. C. Miller ◽  
William E. Miller

ABSTRACT The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-encoded G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) US28 is a potent activator of a number of signaling pathways in HCMV-infected cells. The intracellular carboxy-terminal domain of US28 contains residues critical for the regulation of US28 signaling in heterologous expression systems; however, the role that this domain plays during HCMV infection remains unknown. For this study, we constructed an HCMV recombinant virus encoding a carboxy-terminal domain truncation mutant of US28, FLAG-US28/1-314, to investigate the role that this domain plays in US28 signaling. We demonstrate that US28/1-314 exhibits a more potent phospholipase C-β (PLC-β) signal than does wild-type US28, indicating that the carboxy-terminal domain plays an important role in regulating agonist-independent signaling in infected cells. Moreover, HMCV-infected cells expressing the US28/1-314 mutant exhibit a prolonged calcium signal in response to CCL5, indicating that the US28 carboxy-terminal domain also regulates agonist-dependent signaling. Finally, while the chemokine CX3CL1 behaves as an inverse agonist or inhibitor of constitutive US28 signaling to PLC-β, we demonstrate that CX3CL1 functions as an agonist with regard to US28-stimulated calcium release. This study is the first to demonstrate that the carboxy terminus of US28 controls US28 signaling in the context of HCMV infection and indicates that chemokines such as CX3CL1 can decrease constitutive US28 signals and yet simultaneously promote nonconstitutive US28 signals.


2015 ◽  
Vol 89 (11) ◽  
pp. 6057-6066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Davies ◽  
Chris M. Brown ◽  
Dana Westphal ◽  
Joanna M. Ward ◽  
Vernon K. Ward

ABSTRACTMany viruses replicate most efficiently in specific phases of the cell cycle, establishing or exploiting favorable conditions for viral replication, although little is known about the relationship between caliciviruses and the cell cycle. Microarray and Western blot analysis of murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1)-infected cells showed changes in cyclin transcript and protein levels indicative of a G1phase arrest. Cell cycle analysis confirmed that MNV-1 infection caused a prolonging of the G1phase and an accumulation of cells in the G0/G1phase. The accumulation in G0/G1phase was caused by a reduction in cell cycle progression through the G1/S restriction point, with MNV-1-infected cells released from a G1arrest showing reduced cell cycle progression compared to mock-infected cells. MNV-1 replication was compared in populations of cells synchronized into specific cell cycle phases and in asynchronously growing cells. Cells actively progressing through the G1phase had a 2-fold or higher increase in virus progeny and capsid protein expression over cells in other phases of the cell cycle or in unsynchronized populations. These findings suggest that MNV-1 infection leads to prolonging of the G1phase and a reduction in S phase entry in host cells, establishing favorable conditions for viral protein production and viral replication. There is limited information on the interactions between noroviruses and the cell cycle, and this observation of increased replication in the G1phase may be representative of other members of theCaliciviridae.IMPORTANCENoroviruses have proven recalcitrant to growth in cell culture, limiting our understanding of the interaction between these viruses and the infected cell. In this study, we used the cell-culturable MNV-1 to show that infection of murine macrophages affects the G1/S cell cycle phase transition, leading to an arrest in cell cycle progression and an accumulation of cells in the G0/G1phase. Furthermore, we show that MNV replication is enhanced in the G1phase compared to other stages of the cell cycle. Manipulating the cell cycle or adapting to cell cycle responses of the host cell is a mechanism to enhance virus replication. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a norovirus interacting with the host cell cycle and exploiting the favorable conditions of the G0/G1phase for RNA virus replication.


Blood ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 1277-1283 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Movassagh ◽  
J Gozlan ◽  
B Senechal ◽  
C Baillou ◽  
JC Petit ◽  
...  

We successfully infected fluorescence-activated cell-sorted CD34+ cells from normal cord blood by the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) laboratory strain Towne. An inhibitory effect of HCMV on clonogenic myeloid progenitors was observed in primary methylcellulose cultures. After an initial 7-day liquid culture of CD34(+)-infected cells, this inhibition was further amplified in secondary methylcellulose cultures, then involving both the myeloid and erythroid lineages. Under these conditions, viral DNA was detected both in erythroid and myeloid colonies using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), but reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) failed to detect viral RNA. In contrast, when CD34(+)-infected cells were maintained in liquid suspension, both immediate, early, and late transcripts were detected as soon as day 3. In addition, viral production was demonstrated in the culture supernatants, thus confirming that a complete viral cycle occurred under liquid conditions. Furthermore, by resorting cells into CD34+ and CD34- fractions, we showed by RT-PCR that viral replication took place in cells still expressing CD34 antigen, whereas no RNA was found in more differentiated cells that had subsequently lost their CD34 antigen. These findings suggest that HCMV replication can occur at the early steps of progenitor differentiation and may be involved in the viral-induced myelosuppression.


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 2806-2813 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ueno ◽  
Y. Eizuru ◽  
H. Katano ◽  
T. Kurata ◽  
T. Sata ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) bodies are discrete nuclear foci that are intimately associated with many DNA viruses. In human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, the IE1 (for “immediate-early 1”) protein has a marked effect on PML bodies via de-SUMOylation of PML protein. Here, we report a novel real-time monitoring system for HCMV-infected cells using a newly established cell line (SE/15) that stably expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP)-PML protein. In SE/15 cells, HCMV infection causes specific and efficient dispersion of GFP-PML bodies in an IE1-dependent manner, allowing the infected cells to be monitored by fluorescence microscopy without immunostaining. Since a specific change in the detergent solubility of GFP-PML occurs upon infection, the infected cells can be quantified by GFP fluorescence measurement after extraction. With this assay, the inhibitory effects of heparin and neutralizing antibodies were determined in small-scale cultures, indicating its usefulness for screening inhibitory reagents for laboratory virus strains. Furthermore, we established a sensitive imaging assay by counting the number of nuclei containing dispersed GFP-PML, which is applicable for titration of slow-growing clinical isolates. In all strains tested, the virus titers estimated by the GFP-PML imaging assay were well correlated with the plaque-forming cell numbers determined in human embryonic lung cells. Coculture of SE/15 cells and HCMV-infected fibroblasts permitted a rapid and reliable method for estimating the 50% inhibitory concentration values of drugs for clinical isolates in susceptibility testing. Taken together, these results demonstrate the development of a rapid, sensitive, quantitative, and specific detection system for HCMV-infected cells involving a simple procedure that can be used for titration of low-titer clinical isolates.


2013 ◽  
Vol 94 (11) ◽  
pp. 2495-2503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart T. Hamilton ◽  
Gillian M. Scott ◽  
Zin Naing ◽  
William D. Rawlinson

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infects monocytes and other haematopoietic progenitor cells which then act as reservoirs for latency and virus dissemination. The chemokine CCL2 (monocyte chemotactic protein-1 or MCP-1) exhibits potent chemotactic activity for monocytes and is a likely target for CMV-induced immunomodulation. In this study, we demonstrate CMV modulates CCL2 expression in MRC-5 fibroblasts with multiplicity-dependent kinetics, where CCL2 is upregulated during early stage infection, followed by CCL2 inhibition at late stage infection. This CMV-induced CCL2 modulation was dependent upon virus replication, as UV-inactivated virus did not elicit any changes in CCL2 levels. Dual immunofluorescence staining showed CMV strains AD169, purified AD169, Merlin, FIX WT (FLAG-US28/WT) and pUS28-deficient FIX (FIX-ΔUS28) all induced upregulation of CCL2 primarily within infected cells. Focal upregulation of CCL2 within FIX-ΔUS28-infected cells demonstrated intracellular CCL2 accumulation was independent of CCL2 sequestration by the CMV-encoded chemokine receptor US28. Infection with purified virus confirmed CMV-induced CCL2 upregulation was not due to any CCL2-inducing factors contained within non-purified virus stocks. The CMV-induced CCL2 expression kinetics occurred concurrently with modulation of the CCL2 transcriptional activators NF-κB, interferon regulatory factor 3 and cytokine IFN-β, independent of virus strain, and with the establishment of viral replication compartments within infected cell nuclei. This is the first report to our knowledge to demonstrate CMV modulation of CCL2 expression within infected cells during viral replication. This immune modulation may facilitate virus dissemination, establishment of latency and pathogenesis of CMV-induced host disease.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (9) ◽  
pp. 4498-4507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian B. DeMeritt ◽  
Liesl E. Milford ◽  
Andrew D. Yurochko

ABSTRACT We previously demonstrated that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection induced the activation of the cellular transcription factor NF-κB. Here, we investigate the mechanism for the HCMV-induced NF-κB activation and the role that the induced NF-κB plays in transactivation of the major immediate-early promoter (MIEP) and production of immediate-early (IE) proteins. Using a dominant-negative inhibitor of NF-κB, the IκB-superrepressor, we demonstrated that active NF-κB is critical for transactivation of the HCMV MIEP. Investigation of the mechanisms of NF-κB activation following HCMV infection showed a rapid and sustained decrease in the inhibitors of NF-κB, IκBα and IκBβ. Because the IκB kinases (IKKs) regulate the degradation of the IκBs, virus-mediated changes in the IKKs were examined next. Using dominant-negative forms of the IKKs, we showed significant decreases in transactivation of the MIEP in the presence of these mutants. In addition, protein levels of members of the IKK complex and IKK kinase activity were upregulated throughout the time course of infection. Lastly, the role NF-κB plays in HCMV IE mRNA and protein production during infection was examined. Using aspirin and MG-132, we demonstrated that production of IE protein and mRNA was significantly decreased and delayed in infected cells treated with these drugs. Together, the results of these studies suggest that virus-mediated NF-κB activation, through the dysregulation of the IKK complex, plays a primary role in the initiation of the HCMV gene cascade in fibroblasts and may provide new targets for therapeutic intervention.


2010 ◽  
Vol 91 (8) ◽  
pp. 2040-2048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siok-Keen Tey ◽  
Felicia Goodrum ◽  
Rajiv Khanna

Recent studies have shown that long-term persistence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in mononuclear cells of myeloid lineage is dependent on the UL138 open reading frame, which promotes latent infection. Although T-cell recognition of protein antigens from all stages of lytic HCMV infection is well established, it is not clear whether proteins expressed during latent HCMV infection can also be recognized. This study conducted an analysis of T-cell response towards proteins associated with HCMV latency. Ex vivo analysis of T cells from healthy virus carriers revealed a dominant CD8+ T-cell response to the latency-associated pUL138 protein, which recognized a non-canonical 13 aa epitope in association with HLA-B*3501. These pUL138-specific T cells displayed a range of memory phenotypes that were in general less differentiated than that previously described in T cells specific for HCMV lytic antigens. Antigen-presentation assays revealed that endogenous pUL138 could be presented efficiently by HCMV-infected cells. However, T-cell recognition of pUL138 was dependent on newly synthesized protein, with little presentation from stable, long-lived protein. These data demonstrate that T cells targeting latency-associated protein products exist, although HCMV may limit the presentation of latent proteins, thereby restricting T-cell recognition of latently infected cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. e1008807
Author(s):  
Einat Seidel ◽  
Liat Dassa ◽  
Corinna Schuler ◽  
Esther Oiknine-Djian ◽  
Dana G. Wolf ◽  
...  

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate immune lymphocytes capable of killing target cells without prior sensitization. One pivotal activating NK receptor is NKG2D, which binds a family of eight ligands, including the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-related chain A (MICA). Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous betaherpesvirus causing morbidity and mortality in immunosuppressed patients and congenitally infected infants. HCMV encodes multiple antagonists of NK cell activation, including many mechanisms targeting MICA. However, only one of these mechanisms, the HCMV protein US9, counters the most prevalent MICA allele, MICA*008. Here, we discover that a hitherto uncharacterized HCMV protein, UL147A, specifically downregulates MICA*008. UL147A primarily induces MICA*008 maturation arrest, and additionally targets it to proteasomal degradation, acting additively with US9 during HCMV infection. Thus, UL147A hinders NKG2D-mediated elimination of HCMV-infected cells by NK cells. Mechanistic analyses disclose that the non-canonical GPI anchoring pathway of immature MICA*008 constitutes the determinant of UL147A specificity for this MICA allele. These findings advance our understanding of the complex and rapidly evolving HCMV immune evasion mechanisms, which may facilitate the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document