Cyclophilin A (CyPA), a ubiquitously distributed intracellular protein, is a peptidylprolyl cis-trans-isomerase and the major target of the potent immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A. Although expressed predominantly as an intracellular molecule, CyPA is secreted by cells in response to inflammatory stimuli and is a potent neutrophil and eosinophil chemoattractant in vitro and in vivo. The mechanisms underlying CyPA-mediated signaling and chemotaxis are unknown. Here, we identified CD147 as a cell surface receptor for CyPA and demonstrated that CD147 is an essential component in the CyPA-initiated signaling cascade that culminates in ERK activation. Both signaling and chemotactic activities of CyPA depended also on the presence of heparans, which served as primary binding sites for CyPA on target cells. The proline 180 and glycine 181 residues in the extracellular domain of CD147 were critical for signaling and chemotactic activities mediated by CD147. Also crucial were active site residues of CyPA, because rotamase-defective CyPA mutants failed to initiate signaling events. These results establish cyclophilins as natural ligands for CD147 and suggest an unusual, rotamase-dependent mechanism of signaling.

Cyclophilin A (CyPA) is specifically incorporated into the virions of HIV-1 and has been shown to enhance significantly an early step of cellular HIV-1 infection. Our preliminary studies implicated CD147 as a receptor for extracellular CyPA. Here, we demonstrate a role for CyPA-CD147 interaction during the early steps of HIV-1 infection. Expression of human CD147 increased infection by HIV-1 under one-cycle conditions. However, susceptibility to infection by viruses lacking CyPA (simian immunodeficiency virus or HIV-1 produced in the presence of cyclosporin A) was unaffected by CD147. Virus-associated CyPA coimmunoprecipitated with CD147 from infected cells. Antibody to CD147 inhibited HIV-1 entry as evidenced by the delay in translocation of the HIV-1 core proteins from the membrane and inhibition of viral reverse transcription. Viruses whose replication did not require CyPA (SIV or mutant HIV-1) were resistant to the inhibitory effect of anti-CD147 antibody. These results suggest that HIV-1 entry depends on an interaction between virus-associated CyPA and CD147 on a target cell.

Replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in non-dividing cells critically depends on import of the viral pre-integration complex into the nucleus. Genetic evidence suggests that viral protein R (Vpr) and matrix antigen (MA) are directly involved in the import process. An in vitro assay that reconstitutes nuclear import of HIV-1 pre-integration complexes in digitonin-permeabilized cells was used to demonstrate that Vpr is the key regulator of the viral nuclear import process. Mutant HIV-1 pre-integration complexes that lack Vpr failed to be imported in vitro, whereas mutants that lack a functional MA nuclear localization sequence (NLS) were only partially defective. Strikingly, the import defect of the Vprmutant was rescued when recombinant Vpr was readded. In addition, import of Vpr -virus was rescued by adding the cytosol of HeLa cells, where HIV-1 replication had been shown to be Vpr-independent. In a solution binding assay, Vpr associated with karyopherin α, a cellular receptor for NLSs. This association increased the affinity of karyopherin α for basic-type NLSs, including that of MA, thus explaining the positive effect of Vpr on nuclear import of the HIV-1 preintegration complex and BSA-NLS conjugates. These results identify the biochemical mechanism of Vpr function in transport of the viral pre-integration complex to, and across, the nuclear membrane.

Cyclophilins are a family of proteins that bind cyclosporin A (CsA) and possess peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity. In addition, they are secreted by activated cells and act in a cytokine-like manner, presumably via signaling through a cell surface cyclophilin receptor. More recently, host-derived cyclophilin A (CyPA) has been shown to be incorporated into HIV-1 virions and its incorporation essential for viral infectivity. Here we present evidence supporting a role for viral-associated CyPA in the early events of HIV-1 infection. We report that HIV-1 infection of primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells can be inhibited by: (i) an excess of exogenously added CyPA; (ii) a CsA analogue unable to enter the cells; (iii) neutralizing antibodies to CyPA. Taken together with our observations that recombinant CyPAinduced mobilization of calcium in immortalized, as well as primary, CD4؉ T lymphocytes, and that incubation of T cells with iodinated CyPA, followed by chemical cross-linking, resulted in the formation of a high molecular mass complex on the cell surface, these results suggest that HIV-1-associated CyPA mediates an early event in viral infection via interaction with a cellular receptor. This interaction may present a target for anti-HIV therapies and vaccines.

It is now well established that HIV-1 requires interactions with both CD4 and a chemokine receptor on the host cell surface for efficient infection. The expression of the CCR5 chemokine receptor in human macrophages facilitates HIV-1 entry into these cells, which are considered important in HIV pathogenesis not only as viral reservoirs but also as modulators of altered inflammatory function in HIV disease and AIDS. LPS, a principal constituent of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls, is a potent stimulator of macrophages and has been shown to inhibit HIV infection in this population. We now present evidence that one mechanism by which LPS mediates its inhibitory effect on HIV-1 infection is through a direct and unusually sustained down-regulation of cell-surface CCR5 expression. This LPS-mediated down-regulation of CCR5 expression was independent of de novo protein synthesis and differed from the rapid turnover of these chemokine receptors observed in response to two natural ligands, macrophage-inflammatory protein-1α and -1β. LPS did not act by down-regulating CCR5 mRNA (mRNA levels actually increased slightly after LPS treatment) or by enhancing the degradation of internalized receptor. Rather, the observed failure of LPS-treated macrophages to rapidly restore CCR5 expression at the cell-surface appeared to result from altered recycling of chemokine receptors. Taken together, our results suggest a novel pathway of CCR5 recycling in LPS-stimulated human macrophages that might be targeted to control HIV-1 infection.