Prevalence of anti-vif antibodies in HIV-1 infected individuals assessed using recombinant baculovirus expressed vif protein

Antisense Transcripts and Antisense Protein: A New Perspective on Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

It was first predicted in 1988 that there may be an Open Reading Frame (ORF) on the negative strand of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) genome that could encode a protein named AntiSense Protein (ASP). In spite of some controversy, reports began to emerge some years later describing the detection of HIV-1 antisense transcripts, the presence of ASP in transfected and infected cells, and the existence of an immune response targeting ASP. Recently, it was established that the asp gene is exclusively conserved within the pandemic group M of HIV-1. In this review, we summarize the latest findings on HIV-1 antisense transcripts and ASP, and we discuss their potential functions in HIV-1 infection together with the role played by antisense transcripts and ASPs in some other viruses. Finally, we suggest pathways raised by the study of antisense transcripts and ASPs that may warrant exploration in the future.

A Pilot Study of the Humoral Response Against the AntiSense Protein (ASP) in HIV-1-Infected Patients

The existence of an antisense Open Reading Frame (ORF) that encodes a putative AntiSense Protein (ASP) on the proviral genome of Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) was a source of debate for 30 years. During the last years, some progresses have been made to characterize the cellular immune response against ASP in HIV-1 seropositive patients. However, no tools were available for the detection of antibodies to ASP in the plasma of HIV-1-infected patients during the natural course of the infection. The aim of our study was to develop a Luciferase Immuno-Precipitation System (LIPS) to monitor the quantitative detection of ASP-specific antibodies in the plasma of HIV-1-infected patients [antiretroviral therapy (ART) naive-patients, patients under ART and HIV-1 controllers], patients who discontinued antiretroviral drugs (ARV). We further used this approach to delineate the epitopes of ASP targeted by antibodies. Antibodies directed against ASP were detected in 3 out of 19 patients who discontinued ARV (15%) and in 1 out of 10 ART-naive patients (10%), but were neither detected in HIV-1 infected patients under ART nor in HIV-1 controllers. Individual variations in levels of ASP-specific antibodies were detected overtime. Both the conserved prolin-rich motif and the core 60–189 region of ASP were found to be essential for antibody recognition in the four patients tested positive for anti-ASP antibodies, who were all untreated at the time of sampling. Moreover, for two of these patients, increased levels of ASP-specific antibodies were observed concomitantly to viremia declines. Overall, our method may represent a useful tool to detect a humoral response to ASP in HIV-1-infected patients, which allowed us to confirm the expression of ASP during the course of HIV-1 infection. Further studies will be needed to fully characterize the humoral response to ASP in HIV-1-infected patients.

Replacement of feline foamy virus bet by feline immunodeficiency virus vif yields replicative virus with novel vaccine candidate potential

BACKGROUND

Hosts are able to restrict viral replication to contain virus spread before adaptive immunity is fully initiated. Many viruses have acquired genes directly counteracting intrinsic restriction mechanisms. This phenomenon has led to a co-evolutionary signature for both the virus and host which often provides a barrier against interspecies transmission events. Through different mechanisms of action, but with similar consequences, spumaviral feline foamy virus (FFV) Bet and lentiviral feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) Vif counteract feline APOBEC3 (feA3) restriction factors that lead to hypermutation and degradation of retroviral DNA genomes. Here we examine the capacity of vif to substitute for bet function in a chimeric FFV to assess the transferability of anti-feA3 factors to allow viral replication.

RESULTS

We show that vif can replace bet to yield replication-competent chimeric foamy viruses. An in vitro selection screen revealed that an engineered Bet-Vif fusion protein yields suboptimal protection against feA3. After multiple passages through feA3-expressing cells, however, variants with optimized replication competence emerged. In these variants, Vif was expressed independently from an N-terminal Bet moiety and was stably maintained. Experimental infection of immunocompetent domestic cats with one of the functional chimeras resulted in seroconversion against the FFV backbone and the heterologous FIV Vif protein, but virus could not be detected unambiguously by PCR. Inoculation with chimeric virus followed by wild-type FFV revealed that repeated administration of FVs allowed superinfections with enhanced antiviral antibody production and detection of low level viral genomes, indicating that chimeric virus did not induce protective immunity against wild-type FFV.

CONCLUSIONS

Unrelated viral antagonists of feA3 cellular restriction factors can be exchanged in FFV, resulting in replication competence in vitro that was attenuated in vivo. Bet therefore may have additional functions other than A3 antagonism that are essential for successful in vivo replication. Immune reactivity was mounted against the heterologous Vif protein. We conclude that Vif-expressing FV vaccine vectors may be an attractive tool to prevent or modulate lentivirus infections with the potential option to induce immunity against additional lentivirus antigens.

A new approach to an AIDS vaccine: creating antibodies to HIV vif will enable apobec3G to turn HIV-infection into a benign problem

For a decade, attempts to produce a vaccine that prevents HIV infection have been fruitless, and fresh approaches are required. Apobec3G is a natural defensin and a cytidine deaminase. Apobec3G induces a high rate of dC to dU mutation in the first minus strand of cDNA, causing degradation throughout the HIV genome that renders the virus effete. The viral infectivity factor (vif) of HIV is essential for efficient replication of that virus. Vif binds to apobec3G and induces its polyubiquitination, which enables HIV to evade apobec3G. This suggests that a vif-based vaccine which induced anti-vif antibodies, would prevent the neutralizing action of vif upon apobec3G. Then, with HIV-vif ineffective, apobec3G could act without hindrance to create a less aggressive, non-lethal HIV infection. Mutated vif impedes HIV infection. Slow progressors with vif 132S had 4-fold lower viral loads than those with vif 132R; and introducing vif 132S into HIV-1 caused a 5-fold decrease in viral replication. And in the absence of vif, HIV virions accumulate multiple defects in structural, enzymatic, and regulatory viral proteins. The success of a vif-based vaccine depends upon (1) a vif-antibody response, and (2) vif antibodies entering the cells that harbor HIV. First, antibodies to vif have been seen in frequencies ranging between 25% and 100% in patients infected with HIV-1. Second, transport of anti-vif antibodies into cells might occur via several mechanisms. Likeliest is that in viremic persons, antibodies would attach to cell-free virions which would piggyback the antibodies into CD4+ cells. Alternatively, a fusion protein between vif and a cell-surface receptor, e.g., CD4 or CCR5, might be used as vaccine antigen. Also, anti-vif antibodies might internalize after ligation of HIV virions budding on the cell surface, in the same way as monoclonal antibodies against porcine pseudorabies virus induced viral glycoproteins on the cell surface to internalize. Finally, monoclonal antibodies, using unknown mechanisms to enter cells, have been effective against several other intracellular pathogens. In summary, HIV-vif might be effective in a vaccine intended to ameliorate either preexisting or subsequent HIV infection.