Disease-free infection in HIV-infected adults is associated with HLA-mediated suppression of viremia, whereas in the sooty mangabey and other healthy natural hosts of SIV, viral replication continues unabated. To better understand factors preventing HIV disease, we here investigated pediatric infection, where AIDS typically develops more rapidly than in adults. Among 170 non-progressing anti-retroviral therapy-naïve children aged >5yrs maintaining normal-for-age CD4 T-cell counts, immune activation levels were low despite high viremia (median 26,000 copies/ml). Potent, broadly neutralizing antibody responses in the majority of subjects and strong virus-specific T-cell activity were present but did not drive pediatric non-progression. However, reduced CCR5 expression and low HIV infection in long-lived central memory CD4 T-cells were observed in pediatric non-progressors. These children therefore express two cardinal immunological features of non-pathogenic SIV infection in sooty mangabeys - low immune activation despite high viremia and low CCR5 expression on long-lived central memory CD4 T-cells – suggesting closer similarities with non-pathogenetic mechanisms evolved over thousands of years in natural SIV hosts than those operating in HIV-infected adults.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other tauopathies are characterized by fibrillar inclusions composed of the microtubule-associated protein, tau. Recently, we demonstrated that the N-terminus of tau (aa 2–18) in filamentous aggregates or N-terminal tau isoforms activates a signaling cascade involving protein phosphatase 1 and glycogen synthase kinase 3 that results in inhibition of anterograde fast axonal transport (FAT). We have termed the functional motif comprised of aa 2–18 in tau the phosphatase-activating domain or PAD. Here, we show that phosphorylation of tau at tyrosine 18, which is a fyn phosphorylation site within PAD, prevents inhibition of anterograde FAT induced by both filamentous tau and 6D tau. Moreover, Fyn-mediated phosphorylation of tyrosine 18 is reduced in disease-associated forms of tau (e.g. tau filaments). A novel PAD-specific monoclonal antibody revealed that exposure of PAD in tau occurs before and more frequently than tyrosine 18 phosphorylation in the evolution of tangle formation in AD. These results indicate that N-terminal phosphorylation may constitute a regulatory mechanism that controls tau-mediated inhibition of anterograde FAT in AD.
Recent anecdotal reports of HIV-infected children who received early anti-retroviral therapy (ART), and showed sustained control of viral replication even after ART discontinuation, have raised the question of whether there is greater intrinsic potential for HIV remission, or even eradication (‘cure’), in paediatric than in adult infection. This Review describes the influence of early initiation of ART, of immune ontogeny and of maternal factors on HIV cure potential in children, and discusses the unique immunotherapeutic opportunities and obstacles that paediatric infection may present.
During their development as myelinating cells oligodendrocyte progenitors (OPC) undergo dramatic changes in the organization of their cytoskeleton. These changes involve an increase in cell branching and lamella extension, which are important for the ability of oligodendrocytes to myelinate multiple axons in the CNS. We have previously shown that the levels of the actin-associated motor protein non-muscle myosin II (NMII) decrease as oligodendrocyte differentiate and that inhibition of NMII activity increases branching and myelination, suggesting that NMII is a negative regulator of oligodendrocyte differentiation. In agreement with this interpretation, we have found that overexpression of NMII prevents oligodendrocyte branching and differentiation, and that OPC maturation is accelerated in NMII knockout mice as shown by a significant increase in the percentage of mature MBP+ cells. Although several pathways have been implicated in oligodendrocyte morphogenesis, their specific contribution to the regulation of NMII activity has not been directly examined. We tested the hypothesis that the activity of NMII in OPC is controlled by Fyn kinase via downregulation of RhoA-ROCK-NMII phosphorylation. We found that treatment with PP2 or knockdown of Fyn using siRNA, prevents the decrease in myosin phosphorylation normally observed during OPC differentiation, and that the inhibition of branching induced by overexpression of constitutively active RhoA can be reversed by treatment with Y27632 or blebbistatin. Taken together our results demonstrate that Fyn kinase downregulates NMII activity thus promoting oligodendrocyte morphological differentiation.
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