Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus uses a novel endocytic pathway for infectious entry via late endosomes.

The endocytic entry of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) into host cells was compared to the entry of viruses known to exploit clathrin or caveolae/raft-dependent pathways. Pharmacological inhibitors, expression of pathway-specific dominant-negative constructs, and siRNA silencing of clathrin together with electron and light microscopy provided evidence that although a minority population followed a classical clathrin-mediated mechanism of entry, the majority of these enveloped RNA viruses used a novel endocytic route to late endosomes. The pathway was clathrin, dynamin-2, actin, Arf6, flotillin-1, caveolae, and lipid raft independent but required membrane cholesterol. Unaffected by perturbation of Rab5 or Rab7 and apparently without passing through Rab5/EEA1-positive early endosomes, the viruses reached late endosomes and underwent acid-induced penetration. This membrane trafficking route between the plasma membrane and late endosomes may function in the turnover of a select group of surface glycoproteins such as the dystroglycan complex, which serves as the receptor of LCMV.

Early antibodies specific for the neutralizing epitope on the receptor binding subunit of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus glycoprotein fail to neutralize the virus.

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is a murine arenavirus whose glycoprotein consists of a transmembrane subunit (GP-2) and a receptor-binding subunit (GP-1). LCMV-neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) are directed against a single site on GP-1 and occur 1 month after the infection of cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte (CTL) deficient mice. In wild-type mice, however, CTLs control early infection, and weak nAb titers emerge very late (after 70 to 150 days) if at all. Production of recombinant GP-1 in native conformation enabled us to study the emergence of GP-1-binding antibodies directed against the neutralizing epitope. By combining binding and neutralization assays, we correlated the development of binding antibodies versus nAbs in wild-type and CTL-deficient mice after infection with different LCMV doses. We found that wild-type mice developed GP-1-specific antibodies already by day 8 after exposure to high but not low doses, demonstrating that naive GP-1-specific B cells were infrequent. Furthermore, the induced antibodies bound to the neutralizing GP-1 epitope but failed to neutralize the virus and therefore were of low affinity. In CTL-deficient mice, where massive viremia quickly levels initial differences in viral load, low and high doses induced low-affinity non-neutralizing GP-1-binding antibodies with kinetics similar to high-dose-infected wild-type mice. Only in CTL-deficient mice, however, the GP-1-specific antibodies developed into nAbs within 1 month. We conclude that LCMV uses a dual strategy to evade nAb responses in wild-type mice. First, LCMV exploits a "hole" in the murine B-cell repertoire, which provides only a small and narrow initial pool of low-affinity GP-1-specific B cells. Second, affinity maturation of the available low-affinity non-neutralizing antibodies is impaired.

Locomotion of fish epidermal keratocytes on spatially selective adhesion patterns.

Cell migration results from forces generated by assembly, contraction, and adhesion of the cytoskeleton. To address how these forces integrate in space and time, novel assays are required that allow spatial separation of the different force categories. We used micro-contact printing of fibronectin on glass substrates to study the effect of adhesion patterns on fish epidermal keratocytes locomotion. Cells migrated at similar speeds on homogeneously adhesive substrates and on patterns with 5 microm-wide adhesive stripes interleaved by non-adhesive stripes with a width varied between 5 and 13 microm. The leading edge protruded on adhesive stripes and lagged behind on non-adhesive stripes. On patterns with non-adhesive stripes wider than 13 microm cells halted, although the lamellipodium did not collapse. High correlation was found between the widths of protruding and lagging edge segments and the widths of the underlying stripes. We explain our data by the force balances between actin polymerization, contraction and adhesion on fibronectin stripes; and between actin polymerization, contraction and lamellipodium-internal elastic tension on non-adhesive stripes. We tested our model further by blocking lamellipodium actin network contraction and polymerization. In both experiments we observed that cells eventually lost their ability to move. However, the two perturbations induced distinct morphological responses. The data suggested that forces powering forward motion of keratocytes are largely associated with network assembly whereas contraction maintains cell polarity. This study establishes spatially selective adhesion substrates and cell morphological readouts as a means to elucidate the mechanical balance between substrate adhesion and cytoskeleton-internal tension in cell migration.

A lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus glycoprotein variant that is retained in the endoplasmic reticulum efficiently cross-primes CD8(+) T cell responses.

Recent studies indicate that T cell cross-priming preferentially occurs against long-lived, stable proteins. We have studied cross-priming by using the glycoprotein (GP) of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), a protein that normally is not MHC class I cross-presented. This study shows that a C-terminally truncated, noncleavable variant of LCMV-GP led to the accumulation of stable, soluble GP trimers in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of the antigen donor cell, and thereby converted LCMV-GP into a potent immunogen for cytotoxic T lymphocyte cross-priming. Immunization of mice with tumor cells expressing an ER-retained LCMV-GP variant cross-primed protective antiviral cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in vivo at least 10,000-fold better than immunization with cells expressing the cross-presentation-"resistant" wild-type LCMV-GP. Thus the ER is a cellular compartment that can provide antigen for cross-presentation, and modifications affecting stability and subcellular localization of the antigen significantly increase its availability for MHC class I cross-presentation. These findings impinge on vaccine strategies.

Identification of an N-terminal trimeric coiled-coil core within arenavirus glycoprotein 2 permits assignment to class I viral fusion proteins.

The lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) glycoprotein (GP) consists of the transmembrane subunit GP-2 and the receptor binding subunit GP-1. Both are synthesized as one precursor protein and stay noncovalently attached after cleavage. In this study, we determined the oligomeric state of the LCMV GP and expressed it in two different conformations suitable for structural analysis. Sequence analysis of GP-2 identified a trimeric heptad repeat pattern containing an N-terminal alpha-helix. An alpha-helical peptide matching this region formed a stable oligomer as revealed by gel filtration chromatography and dynamic light scattering. In contrast, a second alpha-helical peptide corresponding to a predicted C-terminal alpha-helix within GP-2 did not oligomerize. Refolding of the complete GP-2 ectodomain revealed trimeric all-alpha complexes probably representing the six-helix bundle state that is considered a hallmark of class I viral fusion proteins. Based on these results, we generated a construct consisting of the complete uncleavable LCMV GP ectodomain fused C-terminally to the trimeric motif of fibritin. Gel filtration analysis of the secreted fusion protein identified two complexes of approximately 230 and approximately 440 kDa. Both complexes bound to a set of conformational and linear antibodies. Cross-linking confirmed the 230-kDa complex to be a trimer. The 440-kDa complexes were found to represent disulfide-linked pairs of trimers, since partial reduction converted them to a complex species migrating at 250 kDa. By electron microscopy, the 230-kDa complexes appeared as single spherical particles and showed no signs of rosette formation. Our results clearly demonstrate that the arenavirus GP is a trimer and must be considered a member of the class I viral fusion protein family.

Minor folding defects trigger local modification of glycoproteins by the ER folding sensor GT.

UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase (GT) is a key component of the glycoprotein-specific folding and quality control system in the endoplasmic reticulum. By exclusively reglucosylating incompletely folded and assembled glycoproteins, it serves as a folding sensor that prolongs the association of newly synthesized glycoproteins with the chaperone-like lectins calnexin and calreticulin. Here, we address the mechanism by which GT recognizes and labels its substrates. Using an improved inhibitor assay based on soluble conformers of pancreatic ribonuclease in its glycosylated (RNase B) and unglycosylated (RNase A) forms, we found that the protein moiety of a misfolded conformer alone is sufficient for specific recognition by GT in vitro. To investigate the relationship between recognition and glucosylation, we tested a variety of glycosylation mutants of RNase S-Protein and an RNase mutant with a local folding defect [RNase C65S, C72S], as well as a series of loop insertion mutants. The results indicated that local folding defects in an otherwise correctly folded domain could be recognized by GT. Only glycans attached to the polypeptide within the misfolded sites were glucosylated.