Link between Primate Lentiviral Coreceptor Usage and Nef Function

• Main Authors: Jan Schmökel, Hui Li, Asma Shabir, Hangxing Yu, Matthias Geyer, Guido Silvestri, Donald L. Sodora, Beatrice H. Hahn, Frank Kirchhoff
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2013-11-01
• Series: Cell Reports
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124713006128

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVsmm) infection of sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) is characterized by stable CD4+ T cell counts despite high plasma levels of CCR5-tropic viruses. However, in rare instances, SIVsmm acquires CXCR4 coreceptor tropism and causes severe CD4+ T cell depletion, albeit without clinical signs of immunodeficiency. Here, we show that CXCR4-tropic SIVsmm strains lost their ability to downmodulate TCR-CD3 by evolving unusual Nef mutations that initially reduced (I132V) and subsequently disrupted (I123L and L146F) interaction with the CD3 ζ chain. This coevolution of Env and Nef function suggests that CD3 downmodulation is advantageous for viral replication in activated CCR5+ memory T cells, but not in resting naive CXCR4+ T cells that have not yet undergone TCR-CD3-mediated stimulation. This may explain why HIV-1, which generally lacks the CD3 downmodulation function, commonly switches to CXCR4 usage, whereas this is extremely rare for SIV strains that have retained this Nef activity.