Positive selection in dNTPase SAMHD1 throughout mammalian evolution.

The vertebrate protein SAMHD1 is highly unusual in having roles in cellular metabolic regulation, antiviral restriction, and regulation of innate immunity. Its deoxynucleoside triphosphohydrolase activity regulates cellular dNTP concentration, reducing levels below those required by lentiviruses and other viruses to replicate. To counter this threat, some primate lentiviruses encode accessory proteins that bind SAMHD1 and induce its degradation; in turn, positive diversifying selection has been observed in regions bound by these lentiviral proteins, suggesting that primate SAMHD1 has coevolved to evade these countermeasures. Moreover, deleterious polymorphisms in human SAMHD1 are associated with autoimmune disease linked to uncontrolled DNA synthesis of endogenous retroelements. Little is known about how evolutionary pressures affect these different SAMHD1 functions. Here, we examine the deeper history of these interactions by testing whether evolutionary signatures in SAMHD1 extend to other mammalian groups and exploring the molecular basis of this coevolution. Using codon-based likelihood models, we find positive selection in SAMHD1 within each mammal lineage for which sequence data are available. We observe positive selection at sites clustered around T592, a residue that is phosphorylated to regulate SAMHD1 activity. We verify experimentally that mutations within this cluster affect catalytic rate and lentiviral restriction, suggesting that virus-host coevolution has required adaptations of enzymatic function. Thus, persistent positive selection may have involved the adaptation of SAMHD1 regulation to balance antiviral, metabolic, and innate immunity functions.

Impact of HLA-B*52:01-Driven Escape Mutations on Viral Replicative Capacity.

HLA-B*52:01 is strongly associated with protection against HIV disease progression. However, the mechanisms of HLA-B*52:01-mediated immune control have not been well studied. We here describe a cohort with a majority of HIV C-clade-infected individuals from Delhi, India, where HLA-B*52:01 is highly prevalent (phenotypic frequency, 22.5%). Consistent with studies of other cohorts, expression of HLA-B*52:01 was associated with high absolute CD4 counts and therefore a lack of HIV disease progression. We here examined the impact of HLA-B*52:01-associated viral polymorphisms within the immunodominant C clade Gag epitope RMTSPVSI (here, RI8; Gag residues 275 to 282) on viral replicative capacity (VRC) since HLA-mediated reduction in VRC is a central mechanism implicated in HLA-associated control of HIV. We observed in HLA-B*52:01-positive individuals a higher frequency of V280T, V280S, and V280A variants within RI8 (P = 0.0001). Each of these variants reduced viral replicative capacity in C clade viruses, particularly the V280A variant (P < 0.0001 in both the C clade consensus and in the Indian study cohort consensus p24 Gag backbone), which was also associated with significantly higher absolute CD4 counts in the donors (median, 941.5 cells/mm3; P = 0.004). A second HLA-B*52:01-associated mutation, K286R, flanking HLA-B*52:01-RI8, was also analyzed. Although selected in HLA-B*52:01-positive subjects often in combination with the V280X variants, this mutation did not act as a compensatory mutant but, indeed, further reduced VRC. These data are therefore consistent with previous work showing that HLA-B molecules that are associated with immune control of HIV principally target conserved epitopes within the capsid protein, escape from which results in a significant reduction in VRC.IMPORTANCE Few studies have addressed the mechanisms of immune control in HIV-infected subjects in India, where an estimated 2.7 million people are living with HIV. We focus here on a study cohort in Delhi on one of the most prevalent HLA-B alleles, HLA-B*52:01, present in 22.5% of infected individuals. HLA-B*52:01 has consistently been shown in other cohorts to be associated with protection against HIV disease progression, but studies have been limited by the low prevalence of this allele in North America and Europe. Among the C-clade-infected individuals, we show that HLA-B*52:01 is the most protective of all the HLA-B alleles expressed in the Indian cohort and is associated with the highest absolute CD4 counts. Further, we show that the mechanism by which HLA-B*52:01 mediates immune protection is, at least in part, related to the inability of HIV to evade the HLA-B*52:01-restricted p24 Gag-specific CD8+ T-cell response without incurring a significant loss to viral replicative capacity.