The persistent infection of a canine thymus cell line by equine infectious anaemia virus and preliminary data on the production of viral antigens

[Mouse embryonic stem cells - a new cellular system for studying the equine infectious anemia virus in vitro and in vivo]

The complexity of the pathogenesis and insufficient knowledge about the slow retroviral infections, which include equine infectious anemia, necessitates finding an adequate laboratory model for the study of the infection process and immunogenesis to create means of prevention and treatment of diseases. Data about strains and cellular tropism of the virus are discussed. It was shown that mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCS) exhibited unique properties and characteristics. In contrast to fibroblasts and other cell types, these cells can be considered as a new cell system for studying EIAV in vitro and in vivo. Under differentiation-inducing conditions they are able to reproduce in vitro embryogenesis cells and form cells of three germ layers. Differentiation of mouse ESCs in the direction of hematopoiesis could contribute new knowledge and understanding of viral tropism EIAV in vitro. ESC can be returned back to the early pre-implantation embryo. Once in the germ cell environment, they participate in the formation of tissues and organs of the developing fetus. Thus, the adaptation of the mouse ESC to the equine EIAV through genetic transformation makes it possible to get closer to the creation of a laboratory model for the study of the in vivo immune response in the lentiviral infection.

The dUTPase-related gene of bovine immunodeficiency virus is critical for viral replication, despite the lack of dUTPase activity of the encoded protein

Background

Deoxyuridine 5′-triphosphate nucleotide-hydrolases (dUTPases) are essential for maintaining low intra-cellular dUTP/dTTP ratios. Therefore, many viruses encode this enzyme to prevent dUTP incorporation into their genomes instead of dTTP. Among the lentiviruses, the non-primate viruses express dUTPases. In bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV), the putative dUTPase protein is only 74 residues-long, compared to ~130 residues in other lentiviruses.

Results

In this study, the recombinant BIV dUTPase, as well as infectious wild-type (WT) BIV virions, were shown to lack any detectable dUTPase activity. Controls of recombinant dUTPase from equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) or of EIAV virions showed substantial dUTPase activities. To assess the importance of the dUTPase to BIV replication, we have generated virions of WT BIV or BIV with mutations in the dUTPase gene. The two mutant viral dUTPases were the double mutant D48E/N57S (in the putative enzyme active site and its vicinity) and a deletion of 36 residues. In dividing Cf2Th cells and under conditions where the WT virus was infectious and generated progeny virions, both mutant viruses were defective, as no progeny viruses were generated. Analyses of the integrated viral cDNA showed that cells infected with the mutant virions carry in their genomic DNA levels of integrated BIV DNA that are comparable to those in WT BIV-infected cells.

Conclusions

The herby presented results show that the two BIV mutants with the modified dUTPase gene could infect cells, as viral cDNA was synthesized and integrated into the host cell DNA. However, no virions were generated by cells infected by these mutants. The most likely explanation is that either the integrated cDNA of the mutants is defective (due to potential multiple mutations, introduced during reverse-transcription) or that the original dUTPase mutations have led to severe blocks in viral replication at steps post integration. These results emphasize the importance of the dUTPase-related sequence to BIV replication, despite the lack of any detectable catalytic activity.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1742-4690-11-60) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Development of an equine-tropic replication-competent lentivirus assay for equine infectious anemia virus-based lentiviral vectors

The release of lentiviral vectors for clinical use requires the testing of vector material, production cells, and, if applicable, ex vivo-transduced cells for the presence of replication-competent lentivirus (RCL). Vectors derived from the nonprimate lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) have been directly administered to patients in several clinical trials, with no toxicity observed to date. Because EIAV does not replicate in human cells, and because putative RCLs derived from vector components within human vector production cells would most likely be human cell-tropic, we previously developed an RCL assay using amphotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV) as a surrogate positive control and human cells as RCL amplification/indicator cells. Here we report an additional RCL assay that tests for the presence of theoretical "equine-tropic" RCLs. This approach provides further assurance of safety by detecting putative RCLs with an equine cell-specific tropism that might not be efficiently amplified by the human cell-based RCL assay. We tested the ability of accessory gene-deficient EIAV mutant viruses to replicate in a highly permissive equine cell line to direct our choice of a suitable EIAV-derived positive control. In addition, we report for the first time the mathematical rationale for use of the Poisson distribution to calculate minimal infectious dose of positive control virus and for use in monitoring assay positive/spike control failures in accumulating data sets. No RCLs have been detected in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant RCL assays to date, further demonstrating that RCL formation is highly unlikely in contemporary minimal lentiviral vector systems.

Characterization of an equine macrophage cell line: application to studies of EIAV infection

EIAV is a monocyte/macrophage tropic virus. To date, even though EIAV has been under investigation for numerous years, very few details have been elucidated about EIAV/macrophage interactions. This is largely due to the absence of an equine macrophage cell line that would support viral replication. Herein we describe the spontaneous immortalization and generation of a clonal equine macrophage-like (EML) cell line with the functional and immunophenotype characteristics of differentiated equine monocyte derived macrophage(s) (eMDM(s)). These cells possess strong non-specific esterase (NSE) activity, are able to phagocytose fluorescent bioparticles, and produce nitrites in response to LPS. The EML-3C cell line expresses the EIAV receptor for cellular entry (ELR1) and supports replication of the virulent EIAV(PV) biological clone. Thus, EML-3C cells provide a useful cell line possessing equine macrophage related properties for the growth and study of EIAV infection as well as of other equine macrophage tropic viruses.

Detection of horses infected naturally with equine infectious anemia virus by nested polymerase chain reaction

A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifying a region of the gag gene of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) was developed for the rapid and direct detection of proviral DNA from the peripheral blood of naturally infected horses and was compared with the Coggins test. DNA prepared from white blood cells of 122 field horses from 15 stables with reported cases of EIAV and one seronegative stable were analysed. Amplifications of expected size fragments were obtained by nested PCR for 88 horses using two different sets of primers targeting the gag region. The specificity of the amplified products was confirmed by hybridization using a digoxigenin-labeled probe. Gag-nested PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis distinguished two different subtypes of gag gene, A and B. Subtype A was found to be the most prevalent among the infected horses that were tested. The PCR-gag amplified sequence of subtype A shared 84.6% nucleotide and 93% deduced amino acid sequence identities with the prototype Wyoming strain whereas subtype B sequence was almost 100% identical to the prototype. Sequence analysis of gag subtype A suggests the presence of a novel EIAV variant among infected horses in Canada. The nested PCR assay developed in the present study detected more EIAV positive animals and was found as specific as the agar gel immunodiffusion (Coggins) assay and offers great potential a diagnostic test for the detection of EIAV infections in field horses.

Replication of the bovine immunodeficiency-like virus in diploid and aneuploid cells: permanent, latent and virus-productive infections in vitro

Bovine immunodeficiency-like virus (BIV) is an infectious and leukotropic retrovirus, the sole lentivirus candidate which has been isolated from cattle. Although BIV has recently been shown to be related to the human immunodeficiency virus, there is very limited information on the replication and the pathogenesis of BIV. It is reported here that BIV can permanently infect diploid and aneuploid cells from four different species: bovine, canine, ferret and ovine. With the exceptions of a bovine diploid and a canine aneuploid cell line, all lines were virus non-productive. However, BIV was rescued by co-cultivation of virus non-productive cells with homologous BIV-free or canine cells (Cf2Th). A permanent and BIV-productive infection was established for 90-serial subcultures in a canine cell line. A BIV titre of 1 x 10(6)/0.1 ml was observed in stationary culture and 1 x 10(10)/0.1 ml in suspension culture. The canine cell line above was used for production of BIV antigens, whereas BIV-free canine cells were routinely used to isolate BIV from BIV non-productive cells infected in vitro and from blood from experimentally BIV-infected cattle. The different steps of virus maturation were similar by electron microscopy to those of lentiviruses. BIV results are compared to those of lentiviruses.