scholarly journals Cell Surface Expression of the Vaccinia Virus Complement Control Protein Is Mediated by Interaction with the Viral A56 Protein and Protects Infected Cells from Complement Attack

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (9) ◽  
pp. 4205-4214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha M. Girgis ◽  
Brian C. DeHaven ◽  
Xin Fan ◽  
Kendra M. Viner ◽  
Mohammad Shamim ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The vaccinia virus (VACV) complement control protein (VCP) is the major protein secreted from VACV-infected cells. It has been reported that VCP binds to the surfaces of uninfected cells by interacting with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). In this study, we show that VCP is also expressed on the surfaces of infected cells and demonstrate that surface localization occurs independently of HSPGs. Since VCP does not contain a transmembrane domain, we hypothesized that VCP interacts with a membrane protein that localizes to the infected-cell surface. We show that the VACV A56 membrane protein is necessary for the cell surface expression of VCP and demonstrate that VCP and A56 interact in VACV-infected cells. Since the surface expression of VCP was abrogated by reducing agents, we examined the contribution of an unpaired cysteine residue on VCP to VCP surface expression and VCP's interaction with A56. To do this, we mutated the unpaired cysteine in VCP and generated a recombinant virus expressing the altered form of VCP. Following the infection of cells with the mutant virus, VCP was neither expressed on the cell surface nor able to interact with A56. Importantly, the cell surface expression of VCP was found to protect infected cells from complement-mediated lysis. Our findings suggest a new function for VCP that may be important for poxvirus pathogenesis and impact immune responses to VACV-based vaccines.

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Huang ◽  
Ya-Xiong Tao

The melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) is a critical regulator of energy homeostasis and has emerged as a premier target for obesity treatment. Numerous mutations in transmembrane domain 6 (TM6) of MC4R resulting in functional alterations have been identified in obese patients. Several mutagenesis studies also provided some data suggesting the importance of this domain in receptor function. To gain a better understanding of the structure–function relationship of the receptor, we performed alanine-scanning mutagenesis in TM6 to determine the functions of side chains. Of the 31 residues, two were important for cell surface expression, five were indispensable for α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) and β-MSH binding, and six were important for signaling in the Gs–cAMP–PKA pathway. H264A, targeted normally to the plasma membrane, was undetectable by competitive binding assay and severely defective in basal and stimulated cAMP production and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. Nine mutants had decreased basal cAMP signaling. Seven mutants were constitutively active in cAMP signaling and their basal activities could be inhibited by two MC4R inverse agonists, Ipsen 5i and ML00253764. Five mutants were also constitutively active in the MAPK pathway with enhanced basal ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In summary, our study provided comprehensive data on the structure–function relationship of the TM6 of MC4R. We identified residues that are important for cell surface expression, ligand binding, cAMP generation, and residues for maintaining the WT receptor in active conformation. We also reported constitutive activation of the MAPK pathway and biased signaling. These data will be useful for rationally designing MC4R agonists and antagonists for treatment of eating disorders.


2009 ◽  
Vol 90 (11) ◽  
pp. 2604-2608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan E. Adamo ◽  
Clement A. Meseda ◽  
Jerry P. Weir ◽  
Michael J. Merchlinsky

Vaccination with Dryvax elicits a broad humoral response against many viral proteins. Human vaccinia immune globulin was used to screen the secreted proteins from cells infected with Dryvax or the candidate smallpox vaccine LC16m8 to determine whether the protective humoral response included antibodies against secreted viral proteins. Many proteins were detected, with the primary band corresponding to a band of 28 or 30 kDa in cells infected with Dryvax or LC16m8, respectively. This was identified as the vaccinia virus complement protein (VCP), which migrated more slowly in LC16m8-infected cells due to post-translational glycosylation. Vaccinia virus deleted in VCP, vVCPko, protected mice from a lethal intranasal challenge of vaccinia Western Reserve strain. Mice vaccinated with purified VCP demonstrated a strong humoral response, but were not protected against a moderate lethal challenge of vaccinia virus, suggesting that the humoral response against VCP is not critical for protection.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (21) ◽  
pp. 11245-11254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. DeHaven ◽  
Natasha M. Girgis ◽  
Yuhong Xiao ◽  
Paul N. Hudson ◽  
Victoria A. Olson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The vaccinia virus (VACV) complement control protein (VCP) is an immunomodulatory protein that is both secreted from and expressed on the surface of infected cells. Surface expression of VCP occurs though an interaction with the viral transmembrane protein A56 and is dependent on a free N-terminal cysteine of VCP. Although A56 and VCP have been shown to interact in infected cells, the mechanism remains unclear. To investigate if A56 is sufficient for surface expression, we transiently expressed VCP and A56 in eukaryotic cell lines and found that they interact on the cell surface in the absence of other viral proteins. Since A56 contains three extracellular cysteines, we hypothesized that one of the cysteines may be unpaired and could therefore form a disulfide bridge with VCP. To test this, we generated a series of A56 mutants in which each cysteine was mutated to a serine, and we found that mutation of cysteine 162 abrogated VCP cell surface expression. We also tested the ability of other poxvirus complement control proteins to bind to VACV A56. While the smallpox homolog of VCP is able to bind VACV A56, the ectromelia virus (ECTV) VCP homolog is only able to bind the ECTV homolog of A56, indicating that these proteins may have coevolved. Surface expression of poxvirus complement control proteins may have important implications in viral pathogenesis, as a virus that does not express cell surface VCP is attenuated in vivo. This suggests that surface expression of VCP may contribute to poxvirus pathogenesis.


Blood ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 106 (11) ◽  
pp. 3088-3088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim E. Olson ◽  
Dianne Pulte ◽  
Marinus Johan Broekman ◽  
Ashley E. Olson ◽  
Joan Drosopoulos ◽  
...  

Abstract Blood-borne cellular elements expressing ectonucleotidase activity have been shown to regulate platelet activation and recruitment in response to agonists. In particular, exposure of a platelet releasate to isolated neutrophils (PMN) results in loss of its platelet activating activity in a subsequent assay (Valles et al, J Clin Invest1993, 92:1357–1365). Whereas expression of CD39 on vascular endothelial cells has been well characterized, expression on leukocytes has been less well studied. Freshly prepared lymphocyte and PMN cell populations were evaluated for both cell surface expression of CD39 and ectonucleotidase activity. FACS analysis showed that 98% of PMN were positive for CD39 compared to only 20% of lymphocytes. In addition, neutrophils stained more intensely, indicating the presence of a higher quantity of cell surface-expressed CD39. Interestingly, neutrophils exhibited only 1/3 of the ATPase and 1/2 of the ADPase activities of the same number of lymphocytes, although the latter are thought to have greater antithrombotic capacity. RT-PCR products from total RNA isolated from lymphocytes and PMN were sequenced. This revealed alternately spliced CD39 mRNA species present in PMN at levels equal to that of CD39 mRNA. In contrast, lymphocytes, which showed much higher levels of CD39 mRNA, expressed these variants at much lower levels. RACE analyses of cDNAs generated from total RNA demonstrated two CD39 gene-derived mRNAs. Each was comprised of an alternate 3′ segment lacking the C-terminal transmembrane domain, and distinguished by an internal deletion. Myc- and Flag-tagged constructs expressed in COS cells resulted in cell surface expression of the respectively tagged variants (immunocytochemistry, western blot analyses of plasma membrane preparations). Membrane preparations assayed for enzyme activity revealed no apyrase activity for either molecule expressed alone or together. Co-transfection of CD39 with equal amounts of either construct singly or in combination resulted in a 30-50% decrease in ATPase activity compared to CD39 alone. Similarly, CD39 co-expressed with either construct alone lost 75–90% of its ADPase activity. Unexpectedly, co-transfection of CD39 with both variants together resulted in a 20–40% increase in ADPase activity. Glutaraldehyde cross-linking of membrane preparations from triply transfected COS cells followed by immunoprecipitation and western blot analyses demonstrated the presence of all three species in higher order complexes. Thus, both variants can simultaneously associate with CD39, generating hetero-multimers with altered substrate preference and catalytic efficiency compared to CD39 tetramers. These observations add to our understanding of the regulation of ectonucleotidase activity at the cell surface. The balanced expression of CD39 and its two identified variants may underlie the anti-platelet activity of neutrophils previously reported. The finding that association of CD39 with either construct alone results in near complete loss of ADPase activity with only partial diminution of ATPase activity suggests a possible etiology for a pro-thrombotic phenotype.


2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 328-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Pizzato ◽  
Barbara Garmy-Susini ◽  
Philippe Le Bouteiller ◽  
Francoise Lenfant

Blood ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. 1354-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Richard ◽  
Sardar Sindhu ◽  
Tram N. Q. Pham ◽  
Jean-Philippe Belzile ◽  
Éric A. Cohen

AbstractHIV up-regulates cell-surface expression of specific ligands for the activating NKG2D receptor, including ULBP-1, -2, and -3, but not MICA or MICB, in infected cells both in vitro and in vivo. However, the viral factor(s) involved in NKG2D ligand expression still remains undefined. HIV-1 Vpr activates the DNA damage/stress-sensing ATR kinase and promotes G2 cell-cycle arrest, conditions known to up-regulate NKG2D ligands. We report here that HIV-1 selectively induces cell-surface expression of ULBP-2 in primary CD4+ T lymphocytes by a process that is Vpr dependent. Importantly, Vpr enhanced the susceptibility of HIV-1–infected cells to NK cell–mediated killing. Strikingly, Vpr alone was sufficient to up-regulate expression of all NKG2D ligands and thus promoted efficient NKG2D-dependent NK cell–mediated killing. Delivery of virion-associated Vpr via defective HIV-1 particles induced analogous biologic effects in noninfected target cells, suggesting that Vpr may act similarly beyond infected cells. All these activities relied on Vpr ability to activate the ATR-mediated DNA damage/stress checkpoint. Overall, these results indicate that Vpr is a key determinant responsible for HIV-1–induced up-regulation of NKG2D ligands and further suggest an immunomodulatory role for Vpr that may not only contribute to HIV-1–induced CD4+ T-lymphocyte depletion but may also take part in HIV-1–induced NK-cell dysfunction.


2000 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisashi Ogura ◽  
Isamu Matsunaga ◽  
Yasuna Takano ◽  
Xiaojun Ning ◽  
Minoru Ayata ◽  
...  

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