CD8 T cells control cytomegalovirus latency by epitope-specific sensing of transcriptional reactivation

Differential role of IL-2R signaling for CD8+ T cell responses in acute and chronic viral infections

IL-2 is a cytokine with multiple and even divergent functions; it has been described as a key cytokine for in vitro T cell proliferation but is also essential for down-regulating T cell responses by inducing activation-induced cell death as well as regulatory T cells. The in vivo analysis of IL-2 function in regulating specific T cell responses has been hampered by the fact that mice deficient in IL-2 or its receptors develop lymphoproliferative diseases and/or autoimmunity. Here we generated chimeric mice harboring both IL-2R-competent and IL-2R-deficient T cells and assessed CD8+ T cell induction, function and maintenance after acute or persistent viral infections. Induction and maintenance of CD8+ T cells were relatively independent of IL-2R signaling during acute/resolved viral infection. In marked contrast, IL-2 was crucial for secondary expansion of memory CD8+ T cells and for the maintenance of virus-specific CD8+ T cells during persistent viral infections. Thus, depending on the chronicity of antigen exposure, IL-2R signaling is either essential or largely dispensable for induction and maintenance of virus-specific CD8+ T cell responses.

High T-cell response to human cytomegalovirus induces chemokine-mediated endothelial cell damage

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been linked to inflammatory diseases that involve vascular endothelial damage, including vascular disease and chronic transplant rejection. We previously reported that the host CD4(+) T-cell response to CMV antigen presented by endothelial cells can produce interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor-alpha at levels sufficient to drive induction of fractalkine, a key marker of inflammation, in endothelial cells. In this work, we report that donors with high frequencies of antigen-specific T cells to CMV (high responders) induce higher levels of activation-associated chemokines such as fractalkine, RANTES (regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted), and macrophage inflammatory protein-1beta, together with cell-adhesion markers in endothelial cells compared with donors with low levels of CMV-specific T cells (low responders). High-responder cultures had higher levels of leukocyte recruitment and adherence to the endothelial monolayers associated with progressive damage and loss of the endothelial cells. These processes that led to endothelial destruction only required viral antigen and did not require infectious virus. Our findings further support that CMV may represent one member of a class of persistent pathogens in which a high antigen-specific T-cell response defines an important risk factor for development of chronic inflammation and endothelial cell injury.

Murine cytomegalovirus major immediate-early enhancer region operating as a genetic switch in bidirectional gene pair transcription

Enhancers are defined as DNA elements that increase transcription when placed in any orientation relative to a promoter. The major immediate-early (MIE) enhancer region of murine cytomegalovirus is flanked by transcription units ie1/3 and ie2, which are transcribed in opposite directions. We have addressed the fundamental mechanistic question of whether the enhancer synchronizes transcription of the bidirectional gene pair (synchronizer model) or whether it operates as a genetic switch, enhancing transcription of either gene in a stochastic alternation (switch model). Clonal analysis of cytokine-triggered, transcription factor-mediated MIE gene expression from latent viral genomes provided evidence in support of the switch model.

Processing and MHC class I presentation of human cytomegalovirus pp65-derived peptides persist despite gpUS2–11-mediated immune evasion

Immune control of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection can be mediated by CD8+cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). Adoptive transfer of antiviral CTL confers protection against HCMV reactivation and disease. The tegument protein pp65 and the immediate-early 1 protein (IE1) are recognized to be major CTL targets, even though during productive infection the viral immunoevasion proteins gpUS2–11 act to suppress major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted antigen presentation. Thus it was not clear how infected cells could be labelled with antigenic peptides in the face of immunoevasion. We show here that the immunodominant peptide pp65NLVwas presented by MHC class I in cells infected with a gpUS2–11-competent virus. Presentation of pp65NLVwas still detectable at 96 h post-infection, although at low levels. Partial suppression of pp65NLVpresentation was dependent on the ability of the infecting strain to express gpUS2–11. MHC class I-restricted antigen presentation in HCMV-infected cells (encoding gpUS2–11) exhibited specificity for pp65-derived peptides, as infected fibroblasts did not present the IE1-derived nonapeptide IE1TMY. Remarkably, infected cells could restore pp65NLVpeptide presentation after acid removal of MHC class I despite gpUS2–11 expression. This recovery was shown to be dependent on proteasome functionality. In contrast to IE1, pp65 peptides are loaded on MHC class I molecules to be transported to the cell surface at early and late times after infection in the face of gpUS2–11-mediated immunoevasion. pp65 is therefore the first example of an HCMV protein only incompletely subjected to gpUS2–11-mediated immunoevasion.

Ectopic expression of HCMV IE72 and IE86 proteins is sufficient to induce early gene expression but not production of infectious virus in undifferentiated promonocytic THP-1 cells

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) reactivation from latency causes disease in individuals who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed. Activation of the major immediate-early (MIE) promoter is thought to be an initial step for reactivation. We determined whether expression of the MIE gene products in trans was sufficient to circumvent an HCMV latent-like state in an undifferentiated transformed human promonocytic (THP)-1 cell model system. Expression of the functional MIE proteins was achieved with a replication-defective adenovirus vector, Ad-IE1/2, which contains the MIE gene locus. Expression of the MIE proteins by Ad-IE1/2 prior to HCMV infection induced viral early gene expression accompanied by an increase in active chromatin signals. Expression of the anti-apoptotic protein encoded by UL37x1 increased viral early gene expression. However, viral DNA replication and production of infectious virus was not detected. As expected, cellular differentiation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and hydrocortisone induced virus production. Cellular differentiation is required for efficient viral reactivation.