Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection initiates in mucosal epithelia

Replication of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) depends on host cell gene products working in conjunction with viral functions and leads to a dramatic dysregulation of cell cycle gene expression. Comprehensive transcriptional profiling was used to identify pathways most dramatically modulated by CMV at late times during infection and to determine the extent to which expression of the viral chemokine receptor US28 contributed to modulating cellular gene expression. Cells infected with the AD169 strain of virus or a fully replication competent US28-deficient derivative (RV101) were profiled throughout the late phase of infection (50, 72, and 98 h postinfection). Although sensitive statistical analysis showed striking global changes in transcript levels in infected cells compared to uninfected cells, the expression of US28 did not contribute to these alterations. CMV infection resulted in lower levels of transcripts encoding cytoskeletal, extracellular matrix, and adhesion proteins, together with small GTPases and apoptosis regulators, and in higher levels of transcripts encoding cell cycle, DNA replication, energy production, and inflammation-related gene products. Surprisingly, a large number of cellular transcripts encoding mitosis-related proteins were upmodulated at late times in infection, and these were associated with the formation of abnormal mitotic spindles and the appearance of pseudomitotic cells. These data extend our understanding of how broadly CMV alters the regulation of host cell cycle gene products and highlight the establishment of a mitosis-like environment in the absence of cellular DNA replication as important for viral replication and maturation.Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has a dramatic impact on the cell that starts immediately after infection (4) and continues through late times (34, 67). The replication cycle follows a temporal cascade of events that depends upon both viral and host cell functions. Viral DNA replication begins between 14 and 24 h postinfection (hpi), and release of progeny starts between 36 and 48 hpi, reaching maximal levels between 72 and 96 hpi (67). This process causes profound changes in host cell shape, metabolism, and gene transcription, components of which are suspected to be critical for efficient replication. Previous studies in primary fibroblasts have revealed the global impact of viral infection on signaling and transcriptional changes that start as early as 15 min and last as long as 48 hpi (4,16,50,51,85,112,113). These studies have largely focused on the immediate impact of the virus on cells and have revealed a dramatic upmodulation of cellular inflammatory and immune gene expression due to virus binding and penetration. Based on this work, selected cellular signaling events (51, 103) and cellular proteins (13,89,114) have been implicated as important regulators of infection. There has been a less concerted effort to understand the global impact of CMV infection at late times during infection (16), despite the fact that maximal modulation would be ...

A process of pseudomitosis occurs during human cytomegalovirus infection that appears similar to cellular mitosis but involves the formation of multiple spindle poles, abnormal condensation, and mislocalization of chromosomal DNA. The relationship of this process to viral replication and cell cycle regulation during infection has been poorly understood. Pseudomitosis consistently peaks at late times of infection in all viral strains examined but at overall highest frequencies (30% to 35% of cells) using one common laboratory strain variant (AD169varATCC). Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) plays a crucial role in pseudomitosis, mirroring its role in conventional mitosis. Dominant negative Cdk1 inhibits and wild-type Cdk1 stimulates this process; however, viral yields remain the same regardless of pseudomitosis levels. Broad inhibition of cell cycle−regulated kinases (Cdk1/Cdk2/Cdk5/Cdk9) with indirubin-3′-monoxime substantially decreases viral yields and synergizes with the viral UL97 kinase inhibitor, maribavir. Thus, Cdk1 is necessary and sufficient to drive pseudomitosis, whereas a combination of viral and cell cycle−regulated kinases is important during viral replication.

We have previously demonstrated that overexpression of p204, a member of the I® 200 gene family, inhibits growth, delays G0/G1 progression into S phase, and impairs E2F-mediated transcriptional activity. In this study, we show that p204 directly binds the retinoblastoma protein (pRb) in vivo to exert its activity. Transient p204 overexpression in Rb+/+ mouse embryo ®bro-blasts (MEF) inhibits cell proliferation, but does not aect cell growth in MEF derived from Rb7/7 mice. Two human cell lines, Saos2 and C33A, bearing an inactive pRb, but not primary human embryo ®broblasts, are resistant to the p204 antiproliferative activity. p204 contains two 200 amino acid motifs, designated as type a or b domains, each containing a canonical Rb binding motif (LXCXE). When dominant-negative mutants at the Rb binding motif were transfected in Rb+/+ MEF, p204 lost its ability to inhibit cell growth, delay cell transition from G1 to S phase, and impair DNA synthesis. Moreover p204 overexpression in Rb+/+ MEF led to a signi®cant decrease of both DHFR and PCNA proteins, two S phase markers. By contrast, this eect was not observed when Rb+/+ MEF were transfected with a p204 mutated at both Rb binding sites. Finally, overexpression of the LXCXE p204 mutant rendered Rb+/+ MEF resistant to the IFN-a antiproliferative activity, in comparison to the untransfected Rb+/+ MEF. As expected, Rb7/7 cells were unsensitive to the IFN-a induced growth inhibition. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that (i) p204 contributes to the IFN-a antiproliferative activity and (ii) the primary target of p204 leading to ecient G1 arrest as well as to blockade of DNA replication from G1 phase is the pRb regulatory system. Oncogene (2000) 19, 3598 ± 3608.

Like all viruses, herpesviruses extensively interact with the host cytoskeleton during entry. While microtubules and microfilaments appear to facilitate viral capsid transport toward the nucleus, evidence for a role of intermediate filaments in herpesvirus entry is lacking. Here, we examined the function of vimentin intermediate filaments in fibroblasts during the initial phase of infection of two genotypically distinct strains of human cytomegalovirus (CMV), one with narrow (AD169) and one with broad (TB40/E) cell tropism. Chemical disruption of the vimentin network with acrylamide, intermediate filament bundling in cells from a patient with giant axonal neuropathy, and absence of vimentin in fibroblasts from vimentin ؊/؊ mice severely reduced entry of either strain. In vimentin null cells, viral particles remained in the cytoplasm longer than in vimentin ؉/؉ cells. TB40/E infection was consistently slower than that of AD169 and was more negatively affected by the disruption or absence of vimentin. These findings demonstrate that an intact vimentin network is required for CMV infection onset, that intermediate filaments may function during viral entry to facilitate capsid trafficking and/or docking to the nuclear envelope, and that maintenance of a broader cell tropism is associated with a higher degree of dependence on the vimentin cytoskeleton. viduals (8, 58). Virtually all cell types, with the exception of lymphocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, can support CMV replication in vivo (80), and this remarkably broad tropism is at the basis of the numerous clinical manifestations of CMV infection (8, 58). The range of permissive cells in vitro is more limited, with human fibroblasts (HF) and endothelial cells being the most widely used for propagation of clinical isolates. Two extensively studied strains, AD169 and Towne, were generated by serial passage of tissue isolates in HF for the purpose of vaccine development (22,68). During this process, both strains accumulated numerous genomic changes (11) and lost the ability to grow in cell types other than HF. By contrast, propagation in endothelial cells produced strains with more intact genomes and tropism, such as TB40/E, VR1814, TR, and PH (59, 80). Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus that can cause serious disease in immunocompromised indiThe viral determinants of endothelial and epithelial cell tropism have recently been mapped to the UL128-UL131A (UL128-131A) genomic locus (32,92,93). Each of the products of the UL128, UL130, and UL131A genes is independently required for tropism and participates in the formation of a complex at the surface of the virion with the viral glycoproteins gH and gL (74, 93), which can also independently associate with gO (45). The gH/gL/UL128-131A complex appears to be required for entry into endothelial cells by endocytosis, followed by low-pH-dependent fusion of the virus envelope with endosomal membranes (73, 74) although some virus strains expressing the UL128-UL131A genes do not require endosome acid...