Jonathan P. Stoye

Replication of HIV-1 and N-tropic murine leukemia virus (N-MLV) is restricted in a number of different primate cells. In some cell lines, cross-saturation experiments suggest that the two viruses are interacting with the same restriction factor. Recently, Trim5alpha protein from rhesus monkey was found to restrict HIV-1. We have confirmed this result and have shown that Trim5alpha from two African green monkey cell lines, Vero and CV-1, also restricts HIV-1. In addition, we show that human, rhesus, and African green monkey Trim5alpha can restrict N-MLV. By using a panel of MLV capsid mutants, subtle differences in the anti-MLV activity were identified among the different primate Trim5alpha cDNAs. Trim1 isolated from humans and green monkeys was also found to restrict N-MLV. We hypothesize that the Trim family of proteins plays a widespread role in innate immunity to viral infection.

Recent interest in the use of porcine organs, tissues, and cells for xenotransplantation to humans has highlighted the need to characterize the properties of pig endogenous retroviruses (PERVs). Analysis of a variety of pig cells allowed us to isolate and identify three classes of infectious type C endogenous retrovirus (PERV-A, PERV-B, and PERV-C) which have distinct env genes but have highly homologous sequences in the rest of the genome. To study the properties of these env genes, expression plasmids for the three env genes were constructed and used to generate retrovirus vectors bearing corresponding Env proteins. Host range analyses by the vector transduction assay showed that PERV-A and PERV-B Envs have wider host ranges, including several human cell lines, compared with PERV-C Env, which infected only two pig cell lines and one human cell line. All PERVs could infect pig cells, indicating that the PERVs have a potential to replicate in pig transplants in immunosuppressed patients. Receptors for PERV-A and PERV-B were present on cells of some other species, including mink, rat, mouse, and dog, suggesting that such species may provide useful model systems to study infection and pathogenicity of PERV. In contrast, no vector transduction was observed on nonhuman primate cell lines, casting doubt on the utility of nonhuman primates as models for PERV zoonosis. Interference studies showed that the three PERV strains use receptors distinct from each other and from a number of other type C mammalian retroviruses.