We showed previously that the histone lysine methyltransferase (HKMT) H3K27me3 (EZH2) is the catalytic subunit of Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) and is required for the maintenance of HIV-1 latency in Jurkat T cells. Here we show, by using chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments, that both PRC2 and euchromatic histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (EHMT2), the G9a H3K9me2-3 methyltransferase, are highly enriched at the proviral 5′ long terminal repeat (LTR) and rapidly displaced upon proviral reactivation. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat(s) (CRISPR)-mediated knockout of EZH2 caused depletion of both EZH2 and EHMT2, but CRISPR-mediated knockout of EHMT2 was selective for EHMT2, consistent with the failure of EHMT2 knockouts to induce latent proviruses in this system. Either (i) knockout of methyltransferase by short hairpin RNA in Jurkat T cells prior to HIV-1 infection or (ii) inhibition of the enzymes with drugs significantly reduced the levels of the resulting silenced viruses, demonstrating that both enzymes are required to establish latency. To our surprise, inhibition of EZH2 (by GSK-343 or EPZ-6438) or inhibition of EHMT2 (by UNC-0638) in the Th17 primary cell model of HIV latency or resting memory T cells isolated from HIV-1-infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy, was sufficient to induce the reactivation of latent proviruses. The methyltransferase inhibitors showed synergy with interleukin-15 and suberanilohydroxamic acid. We conclude that both PRC2 and EHMT2 are required for the establishment and maintenance of HIV-1 proviral silencing in primary cells. Furthermore, EZH2 inhibitors such as GSK-343 and EPZ-6438 and the EHMT2 inhibitor UNC-0638 are strong candidates for use as latency-reversing agents in clinical studies.

Metamorphosis of anuran tadpoles is controlled by thyroid hormone (TH).Here we demonstrate that transgenic Xenopus laevis tadpoles expressing a dominant negative form of TH receptor-␣ are resistant to a wide variety of the metamorphic changes induced by TH. This result confirms that TH receptors mediate both early and late developmental programs of metamorphosis as diverse as growth in the brain, limb buds, nose and Meckel's cartilage, remodeling of the intestine, and death and resorption of the gills and tail.R ising thyroid hormone (TH) levels produced by the thyroid gland of a growing tadpole orchestrate the sequential changes of metamorphosis in the majority of tadpole organs. These morphological changes range from growth and cell differentiation (limbs) to cell death and tissue resorption (tail and gills), and include the remodeling of tadpole organs into their adult forms (intestine, skin, and brain). With the discovery that the TH receptors (TRs) are transcription factors (1, 2), these varied developmental programs have been studied as complex changes in gene expression initiated by TH (3). Despite the many experiments that prove the requirement of TH in metamorphosis, there is only one demonstration to date showing conclusively that TH acts by way of TRs in a particular metamorphic program. The asymmetrical replication of the ventral retina in Xenopus laevis is inhibited by expression of a dominant negative form of the TR (TRDN; ref. 4).All vertebrates studied to date, including X. laevis (5), have two highly conserved TR isoforms called TR␣ and TR␤. In X. laevis, tadpole TR␣ is constitutive and distributed widely in tissues even before the organism forms a thyroid gland (6). Because TR␤ is a direct response gene of TH (6, 7), the amount of TR␤ in cells increases along with the rise in endogenous TH that occurs as metamorphosis proceeds (6,8). During premetamorphosis when the early events of tadpole development (such as limb growth and DNA replication in the brain) occur, the TH concentration and the TR␤ levels are very low. TR␤ and TH rise to a peak at the climax of metamorphosis when the final changes (such as gill and tail resorption and intestinal remodeling) occur. We will show that TR␣ is required for the precocious response of young tadpoles to exogenous TH in their rearing water. We have taken advantage of the new transgenesis method (9) to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) fused to a dominant negative form of TR-␣ (GFP-TRDN␣) driven by two different widely expressed promoters. Metamorphic changes that are inhibited by the GFP-TRDN␣ include brain development, limb and Meckel's cartilage growth, intestinal remodeling, gill resorption, and death of cells in the tail including muscle. Materials and MethodsPlasmids, Transgenesis, and 3,5,3 Triiodothyronine (T3) Treatment.Constructs were prepared in pCS2 ϩ -based vectors and used either the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter͞enhancer (10) or a 6-kb ␣2(1) mouse collagen enhancer fused to a minimal ␣2 (1) promoter (Col; ref. 11). Constructs were made ...

SignificanceThe molecular mechanisms leading to the creation and maintenance of the latent HIV reservoir remain incompletely understood. Unbiased shRNA screens showed that the estrogen receptor acts as a potent repressor of proviral reactivation in T cells. Antagonists of ESR-1 activate latent HIV-1 proviruses while agonists, including β-estradiol, potently block HIV reactivation. Using a well-matched set of male and female donors, we found that ESR-1 plays an important role in regulating HIV transcription in both sexes. However, women are much more responsive to estrogen and appear to harbor smaller inducible RNA reservoirs. Accounting for the impact of estrogen on HIV viral reservoirs will therefore be critical for devising curative therapies for women, a group representing 51% of global HIV infections.

Thyroid hormone (TH) controlled gene expression profiles have been studied in the tail, hind limb and brain tissues during TH-induced and spontaneous Xenopus laevis metamorphosis. Amplified cRNA probes mixed with a universal standard were hybridized to a set of 21,807-sense strand 60-mer oligonucleotides on each slide representing the entries in X. laevis UniGene Build 48. Most of the up-regulated genes in hind limb and brain are the same. This reflects in part the fact that the initial response to TH induction in both tissues is cell proliferation. A large number of up-regulated genes in the limb and brain programs encode common components of the cell cycle, DNA and RNA metabolism, transcription and translation. Notch is one of the few genes that is differentially expressed exclusively in the brain in the first 48 h of TH induction studied in these experiments. The TH-induced gene expression changes in the tail are different from the limb and brain programs. Distinct muscle and fibroblast programs were identified in the tail. Dying muscle fibers in tail (marked by active caspase-3) up-regulate a group of genes that include proteolytic enzymes. At the climax of metamorphosis, tail muscle down-regulates more than half of the genes that encode the glycolytic enzymes in the cytoplasm and the tricarboxylic acid pathway and all five complexes of the electron transport system in mitochondria. These changes in gene expression precede the activation of caspase-3. Some of these same energy metabolism-related genes are up-regulated in the limb and brain programs by TH. A prominent feature of the tail fibroblasts is the down-regulation of several collagen and other extra cellular matrix genes and the up-regulation of hydrolytic enzymes that are responsible for dissolving the notochord and resorbing the tail.

BackgroundMultiple toll-like receptors (TLRs) are expressed in cells of the monocytic lineage, including microglia, which constitute the major reservoir for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the brain. We hypothesized that TLR receptor mediated responses to inflammatory conditions by microglial cells in the central nervous system (CNS) are able to induce latent HIV proviruses, and contribute to the etiology of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.ResultsNewly developed human microglial cell lines (hµglia), obtained by immortalizing human primary microglia with simian virus-40 (SV40) large T antigen and the human telomerase reverse transcriptase, were used to generate latently infected cells using a single-round HIV virus carrying a green fluorescence protein reporter (hµglia/HIV, clones HC01 and HC69). Treatment of these cells with a panel of TLR ligands showed surprisingly that two potent TLR3 agonists, poly (I:C) and bacterial ribosomal RNA potently reactivated HIV in hμglia/HIV cells. LPS (TLR4 agonist), flagellin (TLR5 agonist), and FSL-1 (TLR6 agonist) reactivated HIV to a lesser extent, while Pam3CSK4 (TLR2/1 agonist) and HKLM (TLR2 agonist) only weakly reversed HIV latency in these cells. While agonists for TLR2/1, 4, 5 and 6 reactivated HIV through transient NF-κB induction, poly (I:C), the TLR3 agonist, did not activate NF-κB, and instead induced the virus by a previously unreported mechanism mediated by IRF3. The selective induction of IRF3 by poly (I:C) was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis. In comparison, in latently infected rat-derived microglial cells (hT-CHME-5/HIV, clone HC14), poly (I:C), LPS and flagellin were only partially active. The TLR response profile in human microglial cells is also distinct from that shown by latently infected monocyte cell lines (THP-1/HIV, clone HA3, U937/HIV, clone HUC5, and SC/HIV, clone HSCC4), where TLR2/1, 4, 5, 6 or 8, but not for TLR3, 7 or 9, reactivated HIV.ConclusionsTLR signaling, in particular TLR3 activation, can efficiently reactivate HIV transcription in infected microglia, but not in monocytes or T cells. The unique response profile of microglial cells to TLR3 is fundamental to understanding how the virus responds to continuous microbial exposure, especially during inflammatory episodes, that characterizes HIV infection in the CNS.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12977-017-0335-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Periodontal pathogens such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum produce five different short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) as metabolic by-products. We detect significantly higher levels of SCFAs in the saliva of patients with severe periodontal disease. The different SCFAs stimulate lytic gene expression of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) dose dependently and synergistically. SCFAs inhibit class-1/2 histone deacetylases (HDACs) and downregulate expression of silent information regulator-1 (SIRT1). SCFAs also downregulate expression of enhancer of zeste homolog2 (EZH2) and suppressor of variegation 3-9 homolog1 (SUV39H1), which are two histone N-lysine methyltransferases (HLMTs). By suppressing the different components of host epigenetic regulatory machinery, SCFAs increase histone acetylation and decrease repressive histone trimethylations to transactivate the viral chromatin. These new findings provide mechanistic support that SCFAs from periodontal pathogens stimulate KSHV replication and infection in the oral cavity and are potential risk factors for development of oral Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). IMPORTANCE About 20% of KS patients develop KS lesions first in the oral cavity, while other patients never develop oral KS. It is not known ifthe oral microenvironment plays a role in oral KS tumor development. In this work, we demonstrate that a group of metabolic by-products, namely, short-chain fatty acids, from bacteria that cause periodontal disease promote lytic replication of KSHV, the etiological agent associated with KS. These new findings provide mechanistic support that periodontal pathogens create a unique microenvironment in the oral cavity that contributes to KSHV replication and development of oral KS.

Thyroid hormone (T3) plays a central role in vertebrate post-embryonic development, and amphibian metamorphosis provides a unique opportunity to examine T3-dependent developmental changes. To establish a molecular framework for understanding T3-induced morphological change, we identified a set of gene expression profiles controlled by T3 in the intestine via microarray analysis. Samples were obtained from premetamorphic Xenopus laevis tadpole intestines after 0, 1, 3, and 6 days of T3 treatment, which induces successive cell death and proliferation essential for intestinal remodeling. Using a set of 21,807 60-mer oligonucleotide probes representing >98% of the Unigene clusters, we found that 1997 genes were differentially regulated by 1.5-fold or more during this remodeling process and were clustered into four temporal expression profiles; transiently up- or downregulated and late up- or downregulated. Gene Ontology categories most significantly associated with these clusters were proteolysis, cell cycle, development and transcription, and electron transport and metabolism, respectively. These categories are common with those found for T3-regulated genes from brain, limb, and tail, although more than 70% of T3-regulated genes are tissue-specific, likely due to the fact that not all genes are annotated into GO categories and that GO categories common to different organs also contain genes regulated by T3 tissue specifically. Finally, a core set of upregulated genes, most previously unknown to be T3-regulated, were identified and enriched in genes involved in transcription and cell signaling.

Xenopus laevis tadpole tails contain fast muscle fibers oriented in chevrons and two pairs of slow muscle ''cords'' along the length of the tail. When tail resorption is inhibited by a number of different treatments, fast muscle but not the slow cord muscle still is lost, demonstrating that the fast tail muscle is a direct target of the thyroid hormone-induced death program. Expression of a dominant negative form of the thyroid hormone receptor (TRDN␣) was restricted to tadpole muscle by means of a muscle-specific promoter. Even though the transgene protects fast tail muscle from thyroid hormone (TH)-induced death, the tail shortens, and the distal muscle chevrons at the tail tip are degraded. This default pathway for muscle death is probably caused by the action of proteolytic enzymes secreted by neighboring fibroblasts. Nonmuscle tissues that are sensitive to TH, such as the fibroblasts, are not protected by the transgene when it is expressed solely in muscle. If allowed to develop to metamorphosis, these transgenic animals die at the climax of metamorphosis before tail resorption has begun. Their limbs have very little muscle even though the rest of limb morphology is normal. Thus, fast tail muscle and limb muscle have their own cell autonomous death and growth programs, respectively, that are independent of the fate of the other neighboring cell types. In contrast, death of the slow muscle is controlled by the other cell types of the tail.