Project description:Suppressive HAART does not eradicate HIV-1 and viral DNA persists as a stably integrated form in the absence of viral particle production. As a consequence, latent reservoirs are refractory to antiretroviral drugs and invisible to immune surveillance. The largest latent reservoir consists of resting memory CD4+ T cells. These cells can resume viral infection when activated through antigen recognition, causing bursts of viremia (blips). Current therapies targeting latent HIV-1 have focused primarily on the M-bM-^@M-^\shock and killM-bM-^@M-^] approach, which employs M-bM-^@M-^\anti-latencyM-bM-^@M-^] drugs M-bM-^@M-^S most notably histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors M-bM-^@M-^S to reactivate and flush latent provirus from its cellular reservoirs in the absence of global T cell activation. This approach is predicated on the notions that viral reactivation will lead to the demise of the infected cell, and that HAART will prevent spreading of the infection. On the contrary, recent evidence indicates that latently infected CD4+ T cells of HIV-1 patients on HAART survive in vitro viral reactivation with the HDAC inhibitor, SAHA, even when co-cultured with autologous CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Moreover, it remains to be addressed the impact of anti-latency drugs on viral reservoirs undergoing low-level ongoing replication, inherently more resistant to the cytopathic effects of HIV-1 and residing in anatomical sites hard to reach for some antiretroviral drugs (e.g. macrophages). As a consequence, there is a need to develop alternative therapeutic approaches aimed at eliminating or decreasing the latent reservoir. Progress in that direction has been hindered by the lack of biomarkers uniquely or differentially expressed on latently infected compared to their uninfected counterparts. To gain insight into the cellular mechanisms that take place in the context of latency, and with the goal of identifying distinctive markers that distinguish latently infected CD4+ T cells, we have used an in vitro model developed in our laboratory to study the expression profile of latently infected CD4+ T cells by microarray analysis. We have used a culture system, previously established in our laboratory, to generate and isolate quiescent latently infected CD4+ T cells in vitro. In this in vitro HIV-1 latency model, CD4+ T cells are activated, infected with full length, replication competent HIV-1, and then returned to quiescence in the presence of IL-7, yielding a culture of quiescent latently infected and uninfected cells. We showed that HIV-1 p24gag expressed during viral replication persists in the cytoplasm of latently infected cells for several days before being degraded. Therefore, we exploited the presence of cytoplasmic p24gag to sort latently infected from uninfected cells by FACS from the same initial cell culture. Total RNA was isolated from sorted latently infected and uninfected cells generated from CD4+ T cells of four different donors. Paired RNA samples from infected and uninfected cells were labeled with Cy3 and Cy5 to allow dual-color competitive hybridization. Moreover, to control for the dye bias in our experiments, we implemented a dye swap protocol (reciprocal labeling) for paired RNA samples from 2 donors. Samples were analyzed by dual-color competitive hybridization on the Agilent whole human genome microarrays (41,000 unique probes). This is the first comparative genomic profiling of primary latently infected resting memory CD4+ T cells versus their uninfected counterparts sorted from the same culture. Microarray analyses performed in this study revealed profound differences between latently infected and uninfected cells. Of relevance are genes involved, not only in previously described pathways related with transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, but affecting proliferation, survival, cell cycle progression and cell metabolism. This could explain why latently infected cells have been resistant to reactivation with current anti-latency approaches. Thus, targeting of more downstream steps, such as the ones identified in this study, may be able to enhance viral flushing from refractory latent reservoirs. In addition, we identified a panel of surface makers differentially expressed in latently infected cells, which seem worth investigating for their potential use as biomarkers. Indeed, they might allow the enrichment of this latent reservoir for molecular in depth studies, for monitoring the size of the latent reservoir in the clinical setting, as well as for the development of new therapeutic strategies aimed at eradicating this reservoir.

Project description:The switch between HIV latency and productive transcription is regulated by an auto-feedback mechanism initiated by the viral trans-activator Tat, which functions to recruit the host transcription elongation factor P-TEFb to proviral HIV. A heterodimeric complex of CDK9 and one of three cyclin T subunits, P-TEFb is expressed at vanishingly low levels in latently infected memory CD4+ T cells and cellular mechanisms controlling its availability for proviral transcription are not well-defined. Using a well-characterized primary T-cell model of HIV latency alongside healthy donor memory CD4+ T cells, we sought to identify specific T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathways that regulate the generation of transcriptionally active P-TEFb, defined as the coordinate expression of cyclin T1 and phospho-Ser175 CDK9. Unexpectedly, cellular treatment with diacylglycerol-mimicking protein kinase C (PKC) agonists in the absence of intracellular calcium mobilization with an ionophore was sufficient to stimulate active P-TEFb expression and reactivate latent HIV with minimal cytotoxicity. Furthermore, inhibition-based experiments demonstrated that PKC agonists and TCR-mobilized diacylglycerol signal through MAP kinases ERK1/2 rather than through PKC to effect the reactivation of both P-TEFb and latent HIV. Single-cell RNA-seq analysis revealed that of the four known isoforms of RasGRP, the diacylglycerol-dependent Ras guanine nucleotide exchange factor RasGRP1 is by far the predominantly expressed isoform in memory CD4+ T cells and should therefore mediate the activation of ERK1/2 upon TCR co-stimulation or PKC agonist challenge. Combined inhibition of the PI3K-AKT-mTORC1/2 pathway alongside the ERK1/2 activator MEK prior to TCR co-stimulation abrogated active P-TEFb expression and strongly suppressed latent HIV reactivation. Therefore, contrary to prevailing models, the coordinate reactivation of P-TEFb and latent HIV in primary T cells in response to either TCR co-stimulation or PKC agonist challenge is largely independent of PKC activity but rather primarily involves two complementary signaling arms of the TCR cascade namely RasGRP1-Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK1/2 and PI3K-AKT-mTORC1/2.

Project description:Our previous work demonstrated that HIV-1 infection progressively reduces TCR/CD3 expression due to a defect in CD3g gene transcripts. We further found that knocking down expression of the viral tat and/or nef genes was correlated with CD3g transcript and TCR/CD3 surface receptor levels on HIV-1 infected cells. This study was undertaken to investigate the direct effect of HIV-1 Tat expression on the TCR/CD3 machinery. Progressive downregulation from TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â was observed on Tat expressing cells in a manner that emulated HIV-1 infection, with a lack of CD3g transcripts again responsible for the defect. When Tat cell cultures containing a mixture of TCR/CD3 surface densities were separated into TCR/CD3hi and TCR/CD3lo/â populations, they quickly reverted to a mixed CD3 phenotype. Thus, the progression TCR/CD3hi to TCR/CD3lo to TCR/CD3â is an active, reversible process with receptor levels fluctuating in response to intracellular dynamics. Examination of tat mutants found that the regions involved in Tat-mediated transactivation and TAR binding are required for TCR/CD3 downregulation while the lysine at position 28 and Tat exon 2 are dispensable. Global gene expression, assessed in association with TCR/CD3 downregulation in HIV-1 infected and Tat expressing cells, detected broad suppression of TCR/CD3 signaling, co-stimulation and negative regulatory genes along with target transcription factors, ligands and receptors. A significant subset of the genes altered in HIV-1 infected cells was specifically targeted by Tat in association with TCR/CD3 loss. Our finding that Tat negatively regulates many facets of the TCR/CD3 machinery has important implications for disease pathogenesis. We used microarrays to investigate changes in CD4+ T cell gene expression induced by HIV-1 infection for comparison with the Tat expressing cells. Examine changes in gene expression in TCR/CD3 negative HIV-1 infected cells compared to TCR/CD3 positive uninfected controls.

Project description:Suppressive HAART does not eradicate HIV-1 and viral DNA persists as a stably integrated form in the absence of viral particle production. As a consequence, latent reservoirs are refractory to antiretroviral drugs and invisible to immune surveillance. The largest latent reservoir consists of resting memory CD4+ T cells. These cells can resume viral infection when activated through antigen recognition, causing bursts of viremia (blips). Current therapies targeting latent HIV-1 have focused primarily on the “shock and kill” approach, which employs “anti-latency” drugs – most notably histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors – to reactivate and flush latent provirus from its cellular reservoirs in the absence of global T cell activation. This approach is predicated on the notions that viral reactivation will lead to the demise of the infected cell, and that HAART will prevent spreading of the infection. On the contrary, recent evidence indicates that latently infected CD4+ T cells of HIV-1 patients on HAART survive in vitro viral reactivation with the HDAC inhibitor, SAHA, even when co-cultured with autologous CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Moreover, it remains to be addressed the impact of anti-latency drugs on viral reservoirs undergoing low-level ongoing replication, inherently more resistant to the cytopathic effects of HIV-1 and residing in anatomical sites hard to reach for some antiretroviral drugs (e.g. macrophages). As a consequence, there is a need to develop alternative therapeutic approaches aimed at eliminating or decreasing the latent reservoir. Progress in that direction has been hindered by the lack of biomarkers uniquely or differentially expressed on latently infected compared to their uninfected counterparts. To gain insight into the cellular mechanisms that take place in the context of latency, and with the goal of identifying distinctive markers that distinguish latently infected CD4+ T cells, we have used an in vitro model developed in our laboratory to study the expression profile of latently infected CD4+ T cells by microarray analysis.

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Extensive proteomic and transcriptomic changes quench the TCR/CD3 activation signal of latently HIV-1 infected T cells

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