Cyclins B1, T1, and H differ in their molecular mode of interaction with cytomegalovirus protein kinase pUL97.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a common ß-herpesvirus causing life-long latent infections. HCMV replication interferes with cell cycle regulation in host cells because the HCMV-encoded cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) ortholog pUL97 extensively phosphorylates the checkpoint regulator retinoblastoma protein. pUL97 also interacts with cyclins B1, T1, and H, and recent findings have strongly suggested that these interactions influence pUL97 substrate recognition. Interestingly, here we detected profound mechanistic differences among these pUL97-cyclin interactions. Our study revealed the following. (i) pUL97 interacts with cyclins B1 and H in a manner dependent on pUL97 activity and HCMV-specific cyclin modulation, respectively. (ii) The phosphorylated state of both proteins is an important determinant of the pUL97-cyclin B1 interaction. (iii) Activated phospho-Thr-315 cyclin H is up-regulated during HCMV replication. (iv) Thr-315 phosphorylation is independent of intracellular pUL97 or CDK7 activity. (v) pUL97-mediated in vitro phosphorylation is detectable for cyclin B1 but not H. (vi) Mutual transphosphorylation between pUL97 and CDK7 is not detectable, and an MS-based phosphosite analysis indicated that pUL97 might unexpectedly not be phosphorylated in its T-loop. (vii) The binary complexes pUL97-cyclin H and CDK7-cyclin H as well as the ternary complex pUL97-cyclin-H-CDK7 are detectable in an assembly-based CoIP approach. (viii) pUL97 self-interaction can be bridged by the transcriptional cyclins T1 or H but not by the classical cell cycle-regulating B1 cyclin. Combined, our findings unravel a number of cyclin type-specific differences in pUL97 interactions and suggest a multifaceted regulatory impact of cyclins on HCMV replication.

Dense Bodies of a gH/gL/UL128/UL130/UL131 Pentamer-Repaired Towne Strain of Human Cytomegalovirus Induce an Enhanced Neutralizing Antibody Response.

The development of a vaccine against human cytomegalovirus infection (HCMV) is a high-priority medical goal. The viral pentameric protein complex consisting of glycoprotein H (gH)/gL/UL128-131A (PC) is considered to be an important vaccine component. Its relevance to the induction of a protective antibody response is, however, still a matter of debate. We addressed this issue by using subviral dense bodies (DBs) of HCMV. DBs are exceptionally immunogenic. Laboratory HCMV strain DBs harbor important neutralizing antibody targets, like the glycoproteins B, H, L, M, and N, but they are devoid of the PC. To be able to directly compare the impact of the PC on the levels of neutralizing antibody (NT-abs) responses, a PC-positive variant of the HCMV laboratory strain Towne was established by bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) mutagenesis (Towne-UL130rep). This strain synthesized PC-positive DBs upon infection of fibroblasts. These DBs were used in side-by-side immunizations with PC-negative Towne DBs. Mouse and rabbit sera were tested to address the impact of the PC on DB immunogenicity. The neutralizing antibody response to PC-positive DBs was superior to that of PC-negative DBs, as tested on fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and endothelial cells and for both animal species used. The experiments revealed the potential of the PC to enhance the antibody response against HCMV. Of particular interest was the finding that PC-positive DBs induced an antibody response that blocked the infection of fibroblasts by a PC-positive viral strain more efficiently than sera following immunizations with PC-negative particles.IMPORTANCE Infections with the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) may cause severe and even life-threatening disease manifestations in newborns and immunosuppressed individuals. Several strategies for the development of a vaccine against this virus are currently pursued. A critical question in this respect refers to the antigenic composition of a successful vaccine. Using a subviral particle vaccine candidate, we show here that one protein complex of HCMV, termed the pentameric complex (PC), enhances the neutralizing antibody response against viral infection of different cell types. We further show for the first time that this not only relates to the infection of epithelial or endothelial cells; the presence of the PC in the particles also enhanced the neutralizing antibody response against the infection of fibroblasts by HCMV. Together, these findings argue in favor of including the PC in strategies for HCMV vaccine development.

The Abundant Tegument Protein pUL25 of Human Cytomegalovirus Prevents Proteasomal Degradation of pUL26 and Supports Its Suppression of ISGylation.

The tegument of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) virions contains proteins that interfere with both the intrinsic and the innate immunity. One protein with a thus far unknown function is pUL25. The deletion of pUL25 in a viral mutant (Towne-ΔUL25) had no impact on the release of virions and subviral dense bodies or on virion morphogenesis. Proteomic analyses showed few alterations in the overall protein composition of extracellular particles. A surprising result, however, was the almost complete absence of pUL26 in virions and dense bodies of Towne-ΔUL25 and a reduction of the large isoform pUL26-p27 in mutant virus-infected cells. pUL26 had been shown to inhibit protein conjugation with the interferon-stimulated gene 15 protein (ISG15), thereby supporting HCMV replication. To test for a functional relationship between pUL25 and pUL26, we addressed the steady-state levels of pUL26 and found them to be reduced in Towne-ΔUL25-infected cells. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments proved an interaction between pUL25 and pUL26. Surprisingly, the overall protein ISGylation was enhanced in Towne-ΔUL25-infected cells, thus mimicking the phenotype of a pUL26-deleted HCMV mutant. The functional relevance of this was confirmed by showing that the replication of Towne-ΔUL25 was more sensitive to beta interferon. The increase of protein ISGylation was also seen in cells infected with a mutant lacking the tegument protein pp65. Upon retesting, we found that pUL26 degradation was also increased when pp65 was unavailable. Our experiments show that both pUL25 and pp65 regulate pUL26 degradation and the pUL26-dependent reduction of ISGylation and add pUL25 as another HCMV tegument protein that interferes with the intrinsic immunity of the host cell.IMPORTANCE Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) expresses a number of tegument proteins that interfere with the intrinsic and the innate defense mechanisms of the cell. Initial induction of the interferon-stimulated gene 15 protein (ISG15) and conjugation of proteins with ISG15 (ISGylation) by HCMV infection are subsequently attenuated by the expression of the viral IE1, pUL50, and pUL26 proteins. This study adds pUL25 as another factor that contributes to suppression of ISGylation. The tegument protein interacts with pUL26 and prevents its degradation by the proteasome. By doing this, it supports its restrictive influence on ISGylation. In addition, a lack of pUL25 enhances the levels of free ISG15, indicating that the tegument protein may interfere with the interferon response on levels other than interacting with pUL26. Knowledge obtained in this study widens our understanding of HCMV immune evasion and may also provide a new avenue for the use of pUL25-negative strains for vaccine production.

Dynamic regulatory interaction between cytomegalovirus major tegument protein pp65 and protein kinase pUL97 in intracellular compartments, dense bodies and virions.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous pathogen of considerable clinical importance. Understanding the processes that are important for viral replication is essential for the development of therapeutic strategies against HCMV infection. The HCMV-encoded protein kinase pUL97 is an important multifunctional regulator of viral replication. Several viral and cellular proteins are phosphorylated by pUL97. The phosphoprotein pp65 is one important substrate of pUL97. It is the most abundant tegument protein of HCMV virions, mediating the upload of other virion constituents and contributing to particle integrity. Further to that, it interferes with host innate immune defences, thereby enabling efficient viral replication. By applying different approaches, we characterized the pp65-pUL97 interaction in various compartments. Specifically, the pUL97 interaction domain of pp65 was defined (282-415). A putative cyclin bridge that enhances pUL97-pp65 interaction was identified. The impact of pUL97 mutation on virion and dense body morphogenesis was addressed using pUL97 mutant viruses. Alterations in the proteome of viral particles were seen, especially with mutant viruses expressing cytoplasmic variants of pUL97. On the basis of these data we postulate a so far poorly recognized functional relationship between pp65 and pUL97, and present a refined model of pp65-pUL97 interaction.

The tegument protein pp65 of human cytomegalovirus acts as an optional scaffold protein that optimizes protein uploading into viral particles.

UNLABELLED: The mechanisms that lead to the tegumentation of herpesviral particles are only poorly defined. The phosphoprotein 65 (pp65) is the most abundant constituent of the virion tegument of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). It is, however, nonessential for virion formation. This seeming discrepancy has not met with a satisfactory explanation regarding the role of pp65 in HCMV particle morphogenesis. Here, we addressed the question of how the overall tegument composition of the HCMV virion depended on pp65 and how the lack of pp65 influenced the packaging of particular tegument proteins. To investigate this, we analyzed the proteomes of pp65-positive (pp65pos) and pp65-negative (pp65neg) virions by label-free quantitative mass spectrometry and determined the relative abundances of tegument proteins. Surprisingly, only pUL35 was elevated in pp65neg virions. As the abundance of pUL35 in the HCMV tegument is low, it is unlikely that it replaced pp65 as a structural component in pp65neg virions. A subset of proteins, including the third most abundant tegument protein, pUL25, as well as pUL43, pUL45, and pUL71, were reduced in pp65neg or pp65low virions, indicating that the packaging of these proteins was related to pp65. The levels of tegument components, like pp28 and the capsid-associated tegument proteins pp150, pUL48, and pUL47, were unaffected by the lack of pp65. Our analyses demonstrate that deletion of pp65 is not compensated for by other viral proteins in the process of virion tegumentation. The results are concordant with a model of pp65 serving as an optional scaffold protein that facilitates protein upload into the outer tegument of HCMV particles. IMPORTANCE: The assembly of the tegument of herpesviruses is only poorly understood. Particular proteins, like HCMV pp65, are abundant tegument constituents. pp65 is thus considered to play a major role in tegument assembly in the process of virion morphogenesis. We show here that deletion of the pp65 gene leads to reduced packaging of a subset of viral proteins, indicating that pp65 acts as an optional scaffold protein mediating protein upload into the tegument.

The proteome of human cytomegalovirus virions and dense bodies is conserved across different strains.

The morphogenesis of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) particles is incompletely understood. Analysis of the protein composition of HCMV virions and subviral dense bodies (DBs) by mass spectrometry provides valuable information to increase our knowledge about viral morphogenesis. Here we addressed the viral proteome of virions and DBs from two fibroblast-passaged isolates and the widely used endotheliotropic TB4-BAC40 strain of HCMV. The results show a striking concordance of the particle proteomes of different strains. One surprising finding was that only low levels of gpUL128-131A were found in TB40-BAC4 virions. These three proteins, together with gH and gL, form a protein complex that is critical for the endothelial cell tropism of that strain. This indicates that either few molecules of that complex per virion or a small fraction of pentamer-positive virions suffice to retain the tropism. Furthermore, using a pp65-deficient variant of TB40-BAC4, we confirm our previous finding that the major tegument protein serves as a scaffold to support the upload of a fraction of the outer tegument proteins into particles. The results demonstrate that HCMV particle morphogenesis is an orchestrated process that leads to the formation of particles with a largely strain-independent protein composition.

Human cytomegalovirus pp71 stimulates major histocompatibility complex class i presentation of IE1-derived peptides at immediate early times of infection.

Suppression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-mediated presentation of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) peptides is an important mechanism to avoid CD8 T lymphocyte recognition and killing of infected cells. Of particular interest is how MHC class I presentation of essential regulatory immediate early (IE) proteins of HCMV can be effectively compromised at times when known viral immunoevasins are not abundantly expressed. The tegument protein pp71 had been suggested to be involved in MHC class I downregulation. Intriguingly, this polypeptide is also critically engaged in the initial derepression of the major IE gene locus, leading to enhanced expression of IE proteins IE1-pp72 and IE2-pp86. Using a set of viral mutants, we addressed the role of pp71 in MHC class I presentation of IE1-pp72-derived peptides. We show that the amount of "incoming" pp71 positively correlates with IE1-pp72 protein levels and with the presentation of IE1-derived peptides. This indicates that the amount of the IE1 protein, induced by pp71, rather than a putative immunoevasive function of the tegument protein, determines MHC class I antigen presentation of IE1-derived peptides. This process proved to be independent of the presence of pp65, which had been reported to interfere with IE1 presentation. It may thus be beneficial for the success of HCMV replication to limit the level of pp71 delivered from infecting particles in order to avoid critical levels of MHC class I presentation of IE protein-derived peptides.

The Autophagy Receptor SQSTM1/p62 Is a Restriction Factor of HCMV Infection.

(1) Background: Intrinsic defense mechanisms are pivotal host strategies to restrict viruses already at early stages of their infection. Here, we addressed the question of how the autophagy receptor sequestome 1 (SQSTM1/p62, hereafter referred to as p62) interferes with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. (2) Methods: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing, mass spectrometry and the expression of p62 phosphovariants from recombinant HCMVs were used to address the role of p62 during infection. (3) Results: The knockout of p62 resulted in an increased release of HCMV progeny. Mass spectrometry revealed an interaction of p62 with cellular proteins required for nucleocytoplasmic transport. Phosphoproteomics further revealed that p62 is hyperphosphorylated at position S272 in HCMV-infected cells. Phosphorylated p62 showed enhanced nuclear retention, which is concordant with enhanced interaction with viral proteins relevant for genome replication and nuclear capsid egress. This modification led to reduced HCMV progeny release compared to a non-phosphorylated version of p62. (4) Conclusions: p62 is a restriction factor for HCMV replication. The activity of the receptor appears to be regulated by phosphorylation at position S272, leading to enhanced nuclear localization, viral protein degradation and impaired progeny production.

Subviral Dense Bodies of Human Cytomegalovirus Enhance Interferon-Beta Responses in Infected Cells and Impair Progeny Production.

(1) Background: Infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) leads to the production and release of subviral particles, termed Dense Bodies (DB). They are enclosed by a membrane resembling the viral envelope. This membrane mediates the entrance of DBs into cells in a way that is comparable to virus infection. HCMV attachment and entry trigger the induction of interferon synthesis and secretion, and the subsequent expression of interferon-regulated genes (IRGs) that might inhibit replication of the virus. Recently, we demonstrated that DBs induce a robust interferon response in the absence of infection. Little is known thus far, including how DBs influence HCMV infection and virus-host interaction. (2) Methods: Purified DBs were used to study the impact on virus replication and on the innate defense mechanisms of the cell. (3) Results: The incubation of cells with DBs at the time of infection had little effect on viral genome replication. Preincubation of DBs, however, led to a marked reduction in viral release from infected cells. These cells showed an enhancement of the cytopathic effect, associated with a moderate increase in early apoptosis. Despite virus-induced mechanisms to limit the interferon response, the induction of interferon-regulated genes (IRGs) was upregulated by DB treatment. (4) Conclusions: DBs sensitize cells against viral infection, comparable to the effects of interferons. The activities of these particles need to be considered when studying viral-host interaction.

Subviral Dense Bodies of Human Cytomegalovirus Induce an Antiviral Type I Interferon Response.

(1) Background: Cells infected with the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) produce subviral particles, termed dense bodies (DBs), both in-vitro and in-vivo. They are released from cells, comparable to infectious virions, and are enclosed by a membrane that resembles the viral envelope and mediates the entry into cells. To date, little is known about how the DB uptake influences the gene expression in target cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of DBs on cells, in the absence of a viral infection. (2) Methods: Mass spectrometry, immunoblot analyses, siRNA knockdown, and a CRISPR-CAS9 knockout, were used to investigate the changes in cellular gene expression following a DB exposure; (3) Results: A number of interferon-regulated genes (IRGs) were upregulated after the fibroblasts and endothelial cells were exposed to DBs. This upregulation was dependent on the DB entry and mediated by the type I interferon signaling through the JAK-STAT pathway. The induction of IRGs was mediated by the sensing of the DB-introduced DNA by the pattern recognition receptor cGAS. (4) Conclusions: The induction of a strong type I IFN response by DBs is a unique feature of the HCMV infection. The release of DBs may serve as a danger signal and concomitantly contribute to the induction of a strong, antiviral immune response.

An Attenuated Strain of Human Cytomegalovirus for the Establishment of a Subviral Particle Vaccine.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is associated with severe disease conditions either following congenital transmission of the virus or viral reactivation in immunosuppressed individuals. Consequently, the establishment of a protective vaccine is of high medical need. Several candidates have been tested in preclinical and clinical studies, yet no vaccine has been licensed. Subviral dense bodies (DB) are a promising vaccine candidate. We have recently provided a GMP-compliant protocol for the production of DB, based on a genetically modified version of the HCMV laboratory strain Towne, expressing the pentameric complex of envelope protein gH-gL-pUL128-131 (Towne-UL130rep). In this work, we genetically attenuated Towne-UL130rep by abrogating the expression of the tegument protein pUL25 and by fusing the destabilizing domain ddFKBP to the N-terminus of the IE1- and IE2-proteins of HCMV. The resulting strain, termed TR-VAC, produced high amounts of DB under IE1/IE2 repressive conditions and concomitant supplementation of the viral terminase inhibitor letermovir to the producer cell culture. TR-VAC DB retained the capacity to induce neutralizing antibodies. A complex pattern of host protein induction was observed by mass spectrometry following exposure of primary human monocytes with TR-VAC DB. Human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DC) moderately increased the expression of activation markers and MHC molecules upon stimulation with TR-VAC DB. In a co-culture with autologous T cells, the TR-VAC DB-stimulated DC induced a robust HCMV-specific T cell-activation and -proliferation. Exposure of donor-derived monocytic cells to DB led to the activation of a rapid innate immune response. This comprehensive data set thus shows that TR-VAC is an optimal attenuated seed virus strain for the production of a DB vaccine to be tested in clinical studies.

Therapeutic Vaccination of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Recipients Improves Protective CD8 T-Cell Immunotherapy of Cytomegalovirus Infection.

Reactivation of latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) endangers the therapeutic success of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in tumor patients due to cytopathogenic virus spread that leads to organ manifestations of CMV disease, to interstitial pneumonia in particular. In cases of virus variants that are refractory to standard antiviral pharmacotherapy, immunotherapy by adoptive cell transfer (ACT) of virus-specific CD8+ T cells is the last resort to bridge the "protection gap" between hematoablative conditioning for HCT and endogenous reconstitution of antiviral immunity. We have used the well-established mouse model of CD8+ T-cell immunotherapy by ACT in a setting of experimental HCT and murine CMV (mCMV) infection to pursue the concept of improving the efficacy of ACT by therapeutic vaccination (TherVac) post-HCT. TherVac aims at restimulation and expansion of limited numbers of transferred antiviral CD8+ T cells within the recipient. Syngeneic HCT was performed with C57BL/6 mice as donors and recipients. Recipients were infected with recombinant mCMV (mCMV-SIINFEKL) that expresses antigenic peptide SIINFEKL presented to CD8+ T cells by the MHC class-I molecule Kb. ACT was performed with transgenic OT-I CD8+ T cells expressing a T-cell receptor specific for SIINFEKL-Kb. Recombinant human CMV dense bodies (DB-SIINFEKL), engineered to contain SIINFEKL within tegument protein pUL83/pp65, served for vaccination. DBs were chosen as they represent non-infectious, enveloped, and thus fusion-competent subviral particles capable of activating dendritic cells and delivering antigens directly into the cytosol for processing and presentation in the MHC class-I pathway. One set of our experiments documents the power of vaccination with DBs in protecting the immunocompetent host against a challenge infection. A further set of experiments revealed a significant improvement of antiviral control in HCT recipients by combining ACT with TherVac. In both settings, the benefit from vaccination with DBs proved to be strictly epitope-specific. The capacity to protect was lost when DBs included the peptide sequence SIINFEKA lacking immunogenicity and antigenicity due to C-terminal residue point mutation L8A, which prevents efficient proteasomal peptide processing and binding to Kb. Our preclinical research data thus provide an argument for using pre-emptive TherVac to enhance antiviral protection by ACT in HCT recipients with diagnosed CMV reactivation.

The Complex Regulatory Role of Cytomegalovirus Nuclear Egress Protein pUL50 in the Production of Infectious Virus.

The regulation of the nucleocytoplasmic release of herpesviral capsids is defined by the process of nuclear egress. Due to their large size, nuclear capsids are unable to traverse via nuclear pores, so that herpesviruses evolved to develop a vesicular transport pathway mediating their transition through both leaflets of the nuclear membrane. This process involves regulatory proteins, which support the local distortion of the nuclear envelope. For human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), the nuclear egress complex (NEC) is determined by the pUL50-pUL53 core that initiates multicomponent assembly with NEC-associated proteins and capsids. Hereby, pUL50 serves as a multi-interacting determinant that recruits several viral and cellular factors by direct and indirect contacts. Recently, we generated an ORF-UL50-deleted recombinant HCMV in pUL50-complementing cells and obtained first indications of putative additional functions of pUL50. In this study, we produced purified ΔUL50 particles under both complementing (ΔUL50C) and non-complementing (ΔUL50N) conditions and performed a phenotypical characterization. Findings were as follows: (i) ΔUL50N particle preparations exhibited a clear replicative defect in qPCR-based infection kinetics compared to ΔUL50C particles; (ii) immuno-EM analysis of ΔUL50C did not reveal major changes in nuclear distribution of pUL53 and lamin A/C; (iii) mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics showed a large concordance of protein contents in the NIEP fractions of ΔUL50C and ΔUL50N particles, but virion fraction was close to the detection limit for ΔUL50N; (iv) confocal imaging of viral marker proteins of immediate early (IE) and later phases of ΔUL50N infection indicated a very low number of cells showing an onset of viral lytic protein expression; and, finally (v) quantitative measurements of encapsidated genomes provided evidence for a substantial reduction in the DNA contents in ΔUL50N compared to ΔUL50C particles. In summary, the results point to a complex and important regulatory role of the HCMV nuclear egress protein pUL50 in the maturation of infectious virus.

Mass Spectrometry-Based Characterization of the Virion Proteome, Phosphoproteome, and Associated Kinase Activity of Human Cytomegalovirus.

The assembly of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) virions is an orchestrated process that requires, as an essential prerequisite, the complex crosstalk between viral structural proteins. Currently, however, the mechanisms governing the successive steps in the constitution of virion protein complexes remain elusive. Protein phosphorylation is a key regulator determining the sequential changes in the conformation, binding, dynamics, and stability of proteins in the course of multiprotein assembly. In this review, we present a comprehensive map of the HCMV virion proteome, including a refined view on the virion phosphoproteome, based on previous publications supplemented by new results. Thus, a novel dataset of viral and cellular proteins contained in HCMV virions is generated, providing a basis for future analyses of individual phosphorylation steps and sites involved in the orchestrated assembly of HCMV virion-specific multiprotein complexes. Finally, we present the current knowledge on the activity of pUL97, the HCMV-encoded and virion-associated kinase, in phosphorylating viral and host proteins.

Production Strategies for Pentamer-Positive Subviral Dense Bodies as a Safe Human Cytomegalovirus Vaccine.

Infections with the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) are associated with severe clinical manifestations in children following prenatal transmission and after viral reactivation in immunosuppressed individuals. The development of an HCMV vaccine has long been requested but there is still no licensed product available. Subviral dense bodies (DB) are immunogenic in pre-clinical models and are thus a promising HCMV vaccine candidate. Recently, we established a virus based on the laboratory strain Towne that synthesizes large numbers of DB containing the pentameric protein complex gH/gL/UL128-131 (Towne-UL130repΔGFP). The work presented here focuses on providing strategies for the production of a safe vaccine based on that strain. A GMP-compliant protocol for DB production was established. Furthermore, the DB producer strain Towne-UL130rep was attenuated by deleting the UL25 open reading frame. Additional genetic modifications aim to abrogate its capacity to replicate in vivo by conditionally expressing pUL51 using the Shield-1/FKBP destabilization system. We further show that the terminase inhibitor letermovir can be used to reduce infectious virus contamination of a DB vaccine by more than two orders of magnitude. Taken together, strategies are provided here that allow for the production of a safe and immunogenic DB vaccine for clinical testing.

Adenovirus E1A/E1B Transformed Amniotic Fluid Cells Support Human Cytomegalovirus Replication.

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replicates to high titers in primary human fibroblast cell cultures. A variety of primary human cells and some tumor-derived cell lines do also support permissive HCMV replication, yet at low levels. Cell lines established by transfection of the transforming functions of adenoviruses have been notoriously resistant to HCMV replication and progeny production. Here, we provide first-time evidence that a permanent cell line immortalized by adenovirus type 5 E1A and E1B (CAP) is supporting the full HCMV replication cycle and is releasing infectious progeny. The CAP cell line had previously been established from amniotic fluid cells which were likely derived from membranes of the developing fetus. These cells can be grown under serum-free conditions. HCMV efficiently penetrated CAP cells, expressed its immediate-early proteins and dispersed restrictive PML-bodies. Viral DNA replication was initiated and viral progeny became detectable by electron microscopy in CAP cells. Furthermore, infectious virus was released from CAP cells, yet to lower levels compared to fibroblasts. Subviral dense bodies were also secreted from CAP cells. The results show that E1A/E1B expression in transformed cells is not generally repressive to HCMV replication and that CAP cells may be a good substrate for dense body based vaccine production.

Proteomic analyses of human cytomegalovirus strain AD169 derivatives reveal highly conserved patterns of viral and cellular proteins in infected fibroblasts.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) particle morphogenesis in infected cells is an orchestrated process that eventually results in the release of enveloped virions. Proteomic analysis has been employed to reveal the complexity in the protein composition of these extracellular particles. Only limited information is however available regarding the proteome of infected cells preceding the release of HCMV virions. We used quantitative mass spectrometry to address the pattern of viral and cellular proteins in cells, infected with derivatives of the AD169 laboratory strain. Our analyses revealed a remarkable conservation in the patterns of viral and of abundant cellular proteins in cells, infected for 2 hours, 2 days, or 4 days. Most viral proteins increased in abundance as the infection progressed over time. Of the proteins that were reliably detectable by mass spectrometry, only IE1 (pUL123), pTRS1, and pIRS1 were downregulated at 4 days after infection. In addition, little variation of viral proteins in the virions of the different viruses was detectable, independent of the expression of the major tegument protein pp65. Taken together these data suggest that there is little variation in the expression program of viral and cellular proteins in cells infected with related HCMVs, resulting in a conserved pattern of viral proteins ultimately associated with extracellular virions.