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Dysregulation der zellulären Eisenaufnahme durch pathogene und apathogene Immundefizienzviren

Subject Area Virology
Term from 2008 to 2013
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 87590509
 
Final Report Year 2014

Final Report Abstract

Increased cellular iron levels are associated with high mortality in HIV-1 infection. Moreover iron is an important cofactor for viral replication, raising the question whether highly divergent lentiviruses actively modulate iron homeostasis. Since it was proposed that HIV-1 Nef might increase cellular iron uptake by inhibition of the hemochromatosis protein HfE, we evaluated the effect on cellular iron uptake upon expression of the accessory protein Nef from different lentiviral strains. Of note, interference with HfE was not conserved among lentiviral Nef proteins and a weak and particular feature of one isolated allele. We furthermore investigated surface Transferrin receptor (TfR) expression levels. These were unaffected by Nef proteins of HIV-1 and its simian precursors but elevated in cells expressing Nefs from most other primate lentiviruses due to reduced TfR internalization. The SIV Nef-mediated reduction of TfR endocytosis was dependent on an N-terminal AP2 binding motif which was not required for downmodulation of CD4, CD28, CD3 or MHCI. Importantly, SIV Nef-induced inhibition of TfR endocytosis lead to the reduction of Transferrin uptake and intracellular iron concentration and was accompanied by attenuated lentiviral replication in macrophages. From the cumulated data of this project we conclude that inhibition of Transferrin and thereby iron uptake by SIV Nef might limit viral replication in myeloid cells. Furthermore, this new SIV Nef function could represent a virus-host adaptation that evolved in natural SIV-infected monkeys. We propose, that in future experiments, the relevance of cellular iron for lentiviral pathogenesis could be studied in appropriate monkey models by exploitation of the selective mutants identified herein.

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