Modulation of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection by Stromal Cell-Derived Factor

The α-chemokine receptor CXCR4 has recently been shown to support syncytium formation mediated by strains of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) that have been selected for growth in the Crandell feline kidney cell line (CrFK-tropic virus). Given that both human and feline CXCR4 support syncytium formation mediated by FIV, we investigated whether human stromal cell-derived factor (SDF-1) would inhibit infection with FIV. Human SDF-1α and SDF-1β bound with a high affinity (K_Ds of 12.0 and 10.4 nM, respectively) to human cells stably expressing feline CXCR4, and treatment of CrFK cells with human SDF-1α resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of infection by FIV_PET. No inhibitory activity was detected when the interleukin-2 (IL-2)-dependent feline T-cell line Mya-1 was used in place of CrFK cells, suggesting the existence of a CXCR4-independent mechanism of infection. Furthermore, neither the human β-chemokines RANTES, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, and MCP-1 nor the α-chemokine IL-8 had an effect on infection of either CrFK or Mya-1 cells with CrFK-tropic virus. Envelope glycoprotein purified from CrFK-tropic virus competed specifically for binding of SDF-1α to feline CXCR4 and CXCR4 expression was reduced in FIV-infected cells, suggesting that the inhibitory activity of SDF-1α in CrFK cells may be the result of steric hindrance of the virus-receptor interaction following the interaction between SDF and CXCR4. Prolonged incubation of CrFK cells with SDF-1α led to an enhancement rather than an inhibition of infection. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that this effect may be due largely to up-regulation of CXCR4 expression by SDF-1α on CrFK cells, an effect mimicked by treatment of the cells with phorbol myristate acetate. The data suggest that infection of feline cells with FIV can be mediated by CXCR4 and that, depending on the assay conditions, infection can be either inhibited or enhanced by SDF-1α. Infection with FIV may therefore prove a valuable model in which to study the development of novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of AIDS.The initial stage in lentiviral infection involves the binding of the viral envelope glycoprotein (Env) to a molecule on the surface of the target cell. The primary high-affinity binding receptor for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is CD4 (9, 26), a member of the immunoglobulin supergene family of molecules. However, binding of the viral glycoprotein to CD4 is insufficient for infection to proceed (29); for virus-cell fusion to occur, the target cell must also express an accessory molecule or coreceptor. The principal coreceptors for HIV infection have now been identified as members of the seven-transmembrane domain (7TM) superfamily of molecules. Syncytium-inducing (SI) T-cell line-tropic strains of virus require coexpression of the α-chemokine receptor CXCR4 for infection (19), whereas non-syncytium-inducing (NSI) strains of virus require coexpression of the β-chemokine receptor CCR5 for infection (1, 6, 10, 13, 14). In addition, other chemokine receptors such as CCR2b and CCR3 (6, 13, 41, 48), the receptor encoded by human cytomegalovirus US28 (39, 41), and the orphan receptor STRL33 (28) can function as coreceptors for HIV infection. More recently, additional members of the 7TM superfamily have been identified as coreceptors for infection with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Two of these receptors, termed Bonzo and BOB, support infection with not only SIV but also HIV type 2 (HIV-2) and macrophage-tropic or dualtropic (both macrophage- and T-cell-tropic) strains of HIV-1 (11). Bonzo has subsequently been identified as being identical to STRL33 (28), whereas BOB is identical to GPR15 (21). A subsequent study has demonstrated that an additional molecule, designated GPR1 (30), can function as a coreceptor for SIV (18). Thus, a diverse range of 7TM molecules which can support infection with primate lentiviruses have now been identified.The selective usage of chemokine receptors as coreceptors for infection by HIV and SIV is borne out by the sensitivity of the viruses to inhibition by chemokines. Infection with viruses which use CCR5 can be inhibited by the β-chemokines RANTES, MIP-1α, and MIP-1β (7, 14), whereas those which use CXCR4 can be inhibited by stromal cell-derived factor (SDF-1) (3, 36). Although infection of primary macrophages by certain primary NSI viruses is not inhibited reproducibly by the β-chemokines RANTES, MIP-1α, and MIP-1β (14, 33, 44), analogs of the β-chemokines such as AOP-RANTES that inhibit HIV infection with an increased potency, inhibit infection of both peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and primary macrophages, and do not trigger signalling via G proteins coupled to the chemokine receptor have been developed (47). Therefore, with the development of SDF-1 derivatives analogous to AOP-RANTES, it may be possible to generate therapeutic agents that are effective at inhibiting not only the NSI strains of HIV found in early infection but also the SI strains of virus which appear late in infection with the progression to AIDS.Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) induces an AIDS-like illness in its natural host, the domestic cat (38). A proportion of primary isolates of FIV can be readily adapted to grow and form syncytia in the Crandell feline kidney (CrFK) cell line (45), analagous to the isolation of SI variants of HIV. Sequencing of the env gene from CrFK-tropic viruses would suggest that the principal determinant of CrFK tropism is an increase in charge of the V3 loop of the envelope glycoprotein (45, 51), further strengthening the analogy between CrFK-tropic strains of FIV and SI strains of HIV. While the primary high-affinity binding receptor for FIV remains elusive, recent studies have demonstrated a role for the feline homolog of CXCR4 in infection with CrFK-tropic strains of FIV (53, 56). Given that the appearance of CXCR4-dependent SI variants of HIV in the peripheral blood of HIV-infected individuals accompanies the progression to AIDS (8), the ability to study the role of such CXCR4-dependent strains of virus in disease pathogenesis is of obvious interest. Moreover, as it appears that several strains of SIV show preferential usage of CCR5 and not CXCR4 for infection (5, 11, 18), then FIV infection of the domestic cat is the only animal model described to date in which the contribution of CXCR4-dependent viruses to the pathogenesis of AIDS may be studied in the natural host of the virus.In this study, we investigated the nature of the interaction between FIV and the chemokine receptor CXCR4. Given the high degree of amino acid sequence homology between human and feline CXCR4 (56), we examined the interaction between human SDF-1 and feline CXCR4. We have found that human SDF-1 binds specifically to feline CXCR4 and inhibits infection with FIV. We demonstrate that SDF-1 can upregulate CXCR4 expression with a corresponding enhancement of infection and that this effect can be mimicked by treatment of the cells with the phorbol ester phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Moreover, infection of interleukin-2 (IL-2)-dependent T cells with FIV was resistant to the inhibitory effects of SDF-1, suggesting the existence of a CXCR4-independent mechanism of infection in these cells. These data suggest that the mechanism of infection with FIV bears striking similarities to infection with HIV and that the study of FIV infection of the domestic cat may provide a valuable insight into the pathogenesis of AIDS.