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Copyright 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
In the absence of viral envelope gene expression, cells expressing human immunodeficiency virus type 1
(HIV-1) gag and pol, accessory HIV functions, and a vector genome RNA produce and secrete large amount of
noninfectious virus-like particles (VLPs) into the conditioned medium. After partial purification, such HIV-1
VLPs can be made infectious in cell-free conditions in vitro by complex formation with lipofection reagents or
Lentivirus vectors such as those based on human immuno- cause they lack mechanisms for recognizing and binding to
deficiency virus (HIV) are attractive reagents for gene therapy specific virus receptors on the surface of cells and thereby
studies because they combine advantageous features of con- cannot initiate the membrane fusion events required for entry
ventional Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV)-based ret- of the particles into the cell. We have recently reported that
rovirus vectors with an ability to infect nondividing cells (4, noninfectious envelope-free MLV GPR particles produced by
1820, 22, 26). Nevertheless, clinical application of this vector packaging cell lines can be converted into infectious particles
system is complicated by safety considerations, some of which in cell-free conditions in vitro by the addition of one of several
are being addressed by the development of improved vector agents intended to provide a fusion function to the particles,
production methods with more complete elimination of HIV including a variety of lipofection reagents and the G protein of
genes (10, 16, 29). We have been interested in the in vitro vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV-G) (2, 25). These agents func-
assembly of gene transfer vectors that contain some viral ele- tion by interacting with the immature, noninfectious particles
ments for cell recognition and entry and have previously pub- to form complexes with physicochemical properties very simi-
lished a partially cell-free method to produce infectious MLV- lar to those of mature virus. Unlike the envelope-free GPR
based particles by addition of fusion functions in vitro to
particles, such in vitro-assembled particles are able to enter
noninfectious virus-like particles. We now report extension of
and infect cells because of the presence of the fusiogenic func-
these earlier results to the HIV-based vectors and also to
tion provided by the lipofectin reagents or VSV-G (2, 25).
include a characterization of the mechanisms of retrovirus
infection. It is particularly important to understand the mechanisms of
HIV type 1 (HIV-1) particles contain a central core consist- assembly, maturation, and cell entry of HIV because identifi-
ing largely of the product of the viral gag gene, the viral RNA, cation of agents able to interfere with these steps in the HIV
the reverse transcriptase and integrase products of the poly- life cycle may provide important therapeutic opportunities to
merase gene, and additional accessory gene products (11). The prevent spreading HIV infection and possibly facilitate the
Gag protein of a number of mammalian retroviruses, including production of HIV-based lentivirus vectors for gene transfer
MLV, HIV-1, and others, has the ability to oligomerize and and gene therapy studies. We have therefore examined the
assemble into virus-like particles, not only in packaging cell ability of HIV-1 GPR particles to form infectious complexes
lines but also in vitro (8, 13, 23, 28, 31, 32). In the absence of with pelleted VSV-G vesicles. In this report, we demonstrate
viral envelope protein synthesis in retrovirus packaging cells, that the conditioned medium from human 293 cells doubly
the viral Gag protein alone assembles efficiently into virus-like transfected with plasmid vectors expressing HIV gag-pol and a
particles that bud from the cell and are released in large num- neomycin phosphotransferase vector contain large amounts of
bers into the conditioned medium of the cells. When the pack- immature, noninfectious GPR particles and that addition of
aging cell line also contains and expresses an integrated retro- Lipofectin or VSV-G vesicles in cell-free conditions in vitro
viral genome, the assembled particles also associate with the makes the particles infectious when assayed on either growing
packageable viral RNA. However, such envelope-free Gag- or growth-arrested HT1080 cells. We also demonstrate that
Pol-RNA (GPR) particles are noninfectious, apparently be- addition of VSV-G vesicles to monolayers of HT1080 cells
followed by addition of noninfectious GPR particles results in
infection of cells with an efficiency directly related to the
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center for Molecular Ge- amount of VSV-G bound to the cells. Similarly, addition of
netics and Department of Pediatrics, UCSD School of Medicine, 9500
Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0634. Phone: (619) 534-4268. Fax:
noninfectious GPR particles to HT1080 cells followed by ad-
(619) 534-1422. E-mail: tfriedmann@ucsd.edu. dition of VSV-G also results in infection of cells with an effi-
Present address: Department of Medicine, USC School of Medi- ciency similar to that of virus produced by conventional in vivo
cine, Los Angeles, CA 90033. methods, demonstrating that initial binding of virus particles to
10790
VOL. 74, 2000 NOTES 10791
ples of native HIV-1 vector and the in vitro-assembled, VSV- therefore seems to generate particles whose physicochemical
G-complexed particles were loaded onto preformed sucrose properties generally resemble native VSV-G-pseudotyped
gradients spanning densities of 1.12 to 1.20 or 1.08 to 1.18 g/ml HIV-1 with the highest infectivity/p24 ratio.
and centrifuged for 24 h at 25,000 rpm at 4C in an SW28 rotor. Since the lipid bilayers of the GPR particles and the target
Fractions of 500 l were collected and assayed for infectivity cell should be very similar, and if VSV-G functions by provid-
and for p24 content by ELISA as described above. In the case ing a bridging fusiogenic function to the GPR particles, it may
of native vector produced by triple transfection (Fig. 2a), p24- be possible to induce the same degree of infectivity onto GPR
containing material exhibited a broad peak at a density of particles by exposing the target cells to VSV-G prior to expo-
approximately 1.15 to 1.16 g/ml. Most of the infectivity cosedi- sure to unmodified GPR particles. We examined the initial
mented with the major p24 peak, although a significant broad attachment and infectivity of uncomplexed GPR particles on
and lighter shoulder of infectious material was detected at a HT1080 cells exposed to VSV-G vesicles. To examine the
density of 1.13 to 1.15 g/ml. This finding of a significant amount binding of VSV-G to target cells, we exposed monolayers of
of infectivity in particles on the light side of the majority of HT1080 cells in six-well plates at a density of approximately
particles is consistent with the results from our previous char- 8 105 cells per well to VSV-G at concentrations of 5 or 20
acterization of MLV particles in which infectivity of MLV g/ml of full culture medium for 30 min, after which the cells
derived from traditional producer cells was found to be max- were washed extensively and further incubated with I1 anti-
imal on the light side of the major reverse transcriptase peak in body to VSV-G (5). The presence of cell-bound VSV-G was
similar sucrose gradients (2). detected by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis using
In the case of GPRVSV-G complexes (Fig. 2b), infectivity an fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled anti-mouse secondary
was detected in a major peak of p24-containing material at a antibody (Southern Biotechnologies) (Fig. 3a). At both con-
density of approximately 1.11 to 1.14 g/ml, lighter than the centrations of VSV-G examined, virtually all cells contained
majority of unmodified GPR particles and also lighter than VSV-G on their surface, as indicated by the complete shift of
most infectious particles in traditional virus preparations de- virtually all cells to positions of increased fluorescence. At the
rived from producer cells (Fig. 2a). The in vitro technique higher concentration (20 g), most cells displayed an increased
VOL. 74, 2000 NOTES 10793
FIG. 3. Binding and infectivity of HT1080 cells pretreated with VSV-G. (a) Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis of VSV-G vesicles bound to HT1080 cells.
HT1080 cells were incubated with two different amounts of VSV-G vesicle, and binding of VSV-G to the cell surface was detected by reaction with antibody I1 to
amount of VSV-G, although a subpopulation of cells seemed envelope-free GPR particles followed by exposure to VSV-G
to be saturated with the lower level of bound VSV-G. produces an efficiency indistinguishable from that of the other
Parallel cultures of VSV-G-exposed HT1080 cells growing two methods of infection demonstrates that the envelope pro-
as described above were used to determine the infectivity of tein-free GPR particles bind to the cells with an efficiency
unmodified GPR particles. Cells were treated with 1, 10, 50, or indistinguishable from that of mature envelope-containing vi-
100 g of VSV-G for 30 min, washed, exposed to unmodified rus particles. While VSV-G binding to HT1080 cells did not
GPR particles in the presence of Polybrene (8 g/ml), and require Polybrene as shown in Fig. 3a, infection with GPR
maintained under G418 selection conditions, as described particles and VSV-G in the absence of Polybrene did not
above, to determine infectivity titer. Infectivity was evident produce any evidence of infection, suggesting that induction of
even at the lowest dose of VSV-G (1 g) (Fig. 3b) and in- cell entry process and not virus particle binding requires the
creased to a plateau at approximately 50 to 100 g. Interest- presence of a polycation such as Polybrene (data not shown).
ingly, this priming effect on the infectivity of GPR particles We obtained similar results with MLV-GPR particles in infec-
remained detectable for several days after a single 30-min tivity studies in rat 208F rat fibroblasts (data not shown).
exposure of HT1080 to VSV-G, with apparent titers of GPR A full understanding of the mechanisms by which retroviral
particles remaining at 25% of starting titers at 24 h and ap- particles recognize, attach to, and infect cells would be very
proximately 10% of starting titers as late as 60 h (data not helpful for the development of antiviral therapies and for the
shown). Even though there were no apparent morphological design of improved retrovirus vectors for gene transfer, vector
changes in the cells or evidence for syncytium formation, the targeting, and gene therapy. The mechanisms of HIV and
persistence of the priming effect indicates the retention in the MLV attachment and cell uptake have been studied exten-
plasma membrane of VSV-G in amounts and in a distribution sively, and families of cell surface receptors and coreceptors
that permits fusion with the membranes of the GPR particles for these retroviruses have been identified and characterized.
for effective binding and uptake. While an initial step of specific interaction of a virus envelope
To compare the efficiency of infection by VSV-G-complexed with its receptor(s) has generally been thought to represent the
particles in HT1080 cells with that of unmodified particles in initial step in most kinds of the virus infection, our observa-
VSV-G-treated cells, we added amounts of uncomplexed HIV tions demonstrate that such an interaction is not essential for
GPR particles identical to those used to prepare the VSV-G the initial binding of HIV- and MLV-based retrovirus particles
complexes described above to cultured HT1080 cells that had to target cells but rather is central to the subsequent process of
been previously exposed for 30 min to VSV-G at a concentra-
tion of 50 g/ml. In a parallel experiment, we exposed cells to
unmodified, envelope-free GPR particles first for 30 min in the
presence of Polybrene (8 g/ml) followed by extensive washing TABLE 2. Infection of HT1080 cells with HIV- and
to remove free unbound particles and finally by treatment with MLV-based GPR particlesa
VSV-G for 30 min at a concentration of 50 g/ml. Titer (CFU/ml)
Another set of infection experiments was performed with Infection procedure HIV-GPR MLV-GPR
MLV-based GPR particles prepared from conditioned me- (LGFPRNL) (LZRNL)
dium of 293GP cells containing LZRNL provirus as previously
described (2, 25). Table 2 summarizes the infectivity of iden- GPR-VSV complex onto HT1080 cells 1.2 105 6.9 105
tical amounts of envelope-free GPR particles rendered infec- 1.4 105 4.0 105
GPR particles onto VSV-G-treated 7.8 104 3.8 105
tious by three different methods: prior addition of VSV-G to HT1080 cells 9.0 104 9.8 104
the GPR particles, addition of VSV-G to target cells followed GPR particles onto untreated cells 1.1 105 4.0 105
by addition of unmodified GPR particles, or addition of enve- followed by VSV-G addition 8.2 104 2.4 105
lope-free GPR particles to uncomplexed cells followed by sub- a
All infections were carried out in duplicate in the presence of Polybrene
sequent addition of VSV-G. Results in Table 2 indicate that (8 g/ml), using identical amounts of GPR particle preparations. Complexes of
the three different methods of inducing infectivity produce GPR particles with VSV-G and treatment of cells with VSV-G were performed
indistinguishable titers. The fact that pretreatment of cells with as described in the text.
10794 NOTES J. VIROL.
membrane fusion, cell entry, and subsequent infection. We and uptake toward the goals of designing improved antiviral
interpret this requirement to indicate that the retrovirus enve- agents in general and improving the design of vectors targeted
lope protein plays a less important role than previously thought to specific tissues for tissue-specific in vivo gene delivery. Many
in initial attachment to cells and that its principal function is studies aimed at cell-specific targeting of retroviruses through
either to induce the fusion between the viral and cellular mem- addition of peptide, single-chain antibodies, or other ligands to
branes that allow entry of the particles into the cell or to allow the envelope proteins of retroviruses have been carried out (6,
transfer of the bound particles to another receptor for subse- 14, 15, 24, 27, 30). In most studies with MLV-based vectors, the
quent cell uptake. These studies do not approach questions efficiency of cell-specific infection has not been great, and it has
related to the function of such retrovirus or lentivirus corecep- generally been assumed that poor infection resulted from
tors, such as are known to be important for infection with HIV structural changes in the chimeric envelope proteins that do
(7, 9, 12). not allow the conformational changes required for membrane
Polycations such as Polybrene have long been known to be fusion and virus particle uptake into exposed cells. On the
required for efficient infection with retroviruses. Our present other hand, reproducible functional targeting has been re-
studies confirm that cell-bound GPR particles, like mature ported with spleen necrosis virus vectors modified to contain
virus particles, cannot be induced by subsequent treatment cell-specific single-chain antibody ligands in the envelope pro-
with VSV-G to become infectious in the absence of Polybrene, tein (6). It has been assumed that this targeting resulted from
suggesting that electrostatic interactions may play a role in a cell-specific attachment event followed by uptake and infec-
postattachment mechanisms of virus infection or that attach- tion after membrane fusion. The relative failure of studies in
ment of virus particles in the absence or presence of polyca- the MLV system may reflect differences in mechanisms of
tions may be different. infection with MLV and spleen necrosis virus and a misleading
These results extend several recent studies describing fea- concept of the early events in retrovirus infection.
tures of retrovirus infection. Pizzato et al. demonstrated that Our working model of the interactions of GPR particles with
ecotropic and envelope protein-free MLV particles bind to VSV-G and with target cells is presented in Fig. 4. Although
human cells with similar efficiency as those of amphotropic the precise mechanisms by which VSV-G vesicles permit gene
viruses (21). In those previous studies, the role of polycations transfer by the GPR particles remain uncertain, it seems likely
in the attachment process was not studied, leaving open ques- that VSV-G plays no significant role in initial particle binding
tions of the relationship between initial binding and subse- to cells but rather acts as a fusion-inducing bridge between the
quent membrane fusion and cell uptake. More recently, Lavil- cell membrane and the envelope of the GPR particles. Because
lette et al. have reported that the addition of soluble forms of the attachment of virus particles is very efficient even in the
type C mammalian retrovirus receptor binding domain to tar- absence of envelope protein, we think that strategies aimed
get cells is sufficient to allow efficient infection with cell entry- largely at influencing initial binding of the retroviral envelope
defective retroviruses carrying mutant envelope glycoproteins
protein to its receptor(s) will continue to be difficult to carry
(17). While the latter results also do not examine the relation-
out and to interpret. We expect that further investigation of
ship between the attachment and fusion functions of the ret-
the in vitro cell-free conditions of retrovirus assembly will be
rovirus envelopes by analyzing the Env-free particles, they pro-
useful to elucidate the infection mechanisms and will also lead
vide clear evidence for a common entry pathway activated by
to production of infectious particles of even higher titers.
conserved features of their envelope glycoproteins.
The results of our present studies of attachment, cell uptake,
and infectivity of envelope-free virus-like particles in both the This study was supported by grants DK49023 and HL53680 from the
HIV and MLV systems underscore the need to understand the National Institutes of Health and from the UCSD Center for AIDS
relative roles of envelope proteins in defining virus attachment Research (NIAID 2 P30 AI 36214). We also thank J. Corbeil of UCSD
VOL. 74, 2000 NOTES 10795
Center for AIDS Research and the Veterans Medical Research Foun- cell entry pathway common to type C mammalian retroviruses by soluble
dation Genomics Core for the HIV-1 gag p24 ELISA. envelope fragments. J. Virol. 74:295304.
18. Lewis, P. F., and M. Emerman. 1994. Passage through mitosis is required for
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