Dendritic cells can capture and transfer retroviruses in vitro across synaptic cell-cell contacts to uninfected cells, a process called trans-infection. Whether trans-infection contributes to retroviral spread in vivo remains unknown. Here, we visualize how retroviruses disseminate in secondary lymphoid tissues of living mice. We demonstrate that murine leukemia virus (MLV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are first captured by sinus-lining macrophages. CD169/Siglec-1, an I-type lectin that recognizes gangliosides, captures the virus. MLV-laden macrophages then form long-lived synaptic contacts to trans-infect B-1 cells. Infected B-1 cells subsequently migrate into the lymph node to spread the infection through virological synapses. Robust infection in lymph nodes and spleen requires CD169, suggesting that a combination of fluid-based movement followed by CD169-dependent trans-infection can contribute to viral spread.

The human JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) establishes an asymptomatic, persistent infection in the kidneys of the majority of the population and is the causative agent of the fatal demyelinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in immunosuppressed individuals. The Mad-1 strain of JCPyV, a brain isolate, was shown earlier to require ␣2,6-linked sialic acid on the lactoseries tetrasaccharide c (LSTc) glycan for attachment to host cells. In contrast, a JCPyV kidney isolate type 3 strain, WT3, has been reported to interact with sialic acid-containing gangliosides, but the role of these glycans in JCPyV infection has remained unclear. To help rationalize these findings and probe the effects of strain-specific differences on receptor binding, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the glycan receptor specificities of these two representative JCPyV strains using high-resolution X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and correlated these data with the results of infectivity assays. We show here that capsid proteins of Mad-1 and WT3 JCPyV can both engage LSTc as well as multiple sialylated gangliosides. However, the binding affinities exhibit subtle differences, with the highest affinity observed for LSTc. Engagement of LSTc is a prerequisite for functional receptor engagement, while the more weakly binding gangliosides are not required for productive infection. Our findings highlight the complexity of virus-carbohydrate interactions and demonstrate that subtle differences in binding affinities, rather than the binding event alone, help determine tissue tropism and viral pathogenesis. IMPORTANCEViral infection is initiated by attachment to receptors on host cells, and this event plays an important role in viral disease. We investigated the receptor-binding properties of human JC polyomavirus (JCPyV), a virus that resides in the kidneys of the majority of the population and can cause the fatal demyelinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in the brains of immunosuppressed individuals. JCPyV has been reported to interact with multiple carbohydrate receptors, and we sought to clarify how the interactions between JCPyV and cellular carbohydrate receptors influenced infection. Here we demonstrate that JCPyV can engage numerous sialylated carbohydrate receptors. However, the virus displays preferential binding to LSTc, and only LSTc mediates a productive infection. Our findings demonstrate that subtle differences in binding affinity, rather than receptor engagement alone, are a key determinant of viral infection. J C polyomavirus (JCPyV) infects ϳ50% of healthy individuals and causes an asymptomatic, lifelong persistent infection in the kidney (1, 2). The form of the virus that resides in the kidney is nonpathogenic and is excreted in the urine (3, 4). In immunosuppressed individuals, JCPyV can spread from the site of persistence to the central nervous system (CNS) (5, 6) and infect the glial cells astrocytes and oligodendroctyes (7,8). Oligod...

The origin and evolution of the infectious disease tuberculosis (TB) and its pathogens is still not fully understood. An important effort for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of TB evolution lies within the investigation of skeletal and mummified material dating back several thousand of years. In this work, molecular data from mummified and skeletal material from different time periods of the Old World are compared, and the current status of ancient mycobacterial DNA analysis in ancient human remains is discussed, with particular reference to the genetic evolution of human TB. The molecular analysis of material from southern Germany (1400-1800 AD), Hungary (600-1700 AD) and Egypt (3500-500 BC) revealed high frequencies of TB in all time periods. In several individuals from ancient Egypt the mycobacterial DNA could be further characterised by spoligotyping. Thereby, evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains was found in the pre-to early dynastic material from Abydos (3500-2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in the Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes-West (2050-1650. Samples from the New Kingdom to Late Period tombs (1500-500 BC) were characterised as modern M. tuberculosis strains. In concordance with other studies on ancient skeletal and mummified samples, no evidence for the presence of M. bovis was found. These results contradict the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during domestication, but supports the new scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain.

Polyomavirus-associated nephropathy (PVAN) is a significant complication after kidney transplantation, often leading to premature graft loss. In order to identify antiviral responses of the renal tubular epithelium, we studied activation of the viral DNA and the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensors Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) and retinoic acid inducible gene-I (RIG-I) in allograft biopsy samples of patients with PVAN, and in human collecting duct cells in culture after stimulation by the dsRNA mimic polyriboinosinic:polyribocytidylic acid (poly(I:C)), cytokines, or infection with BK virus. Double staining using immunofluorescence for BK virus and TLR3 showed strong signals in epithelial cells of distal cortical tubules and the collecting duct. In biopsies microdissected to isolate tubulointerstitial lesions, TLR3 but not RIG-I mRNA expression was found to be increased in PVAN. Collecting duct cells in culture expressed TLR3 intracellularly, and activation of TLR3 and RIG-I by poly(I:C) enhanced expression of cytokine, chemokine, and IFN-β mRNA. This inflammatory response could be specifically blocked by siRNA to TLR3. Finally, infection of the collecting duct cells with BK virus enhanced the expression of cytokines and chemokines. This led to an efficient antiviral immune response with TLR3 and RIG-I upregulation without activation of IL-1β or components of the inflammasome pathway. Thus, PVAN activation of innate immune defense mechanisms through TLR3 is involved in the antiviral and anti-inflammatory response leading to the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines.

Simian virus 40 (SV40), a polyomavirus that has served as an important model to understand many aspects of biology, induces dramatic cytoplasmic vacuolization late during productive infection of monkey host cells. Although this activity led to the discovery of the virus in 1960, the mechanism of vacuolization is still not known. Pentamers of the major SV40 capsid protein VP1 bind to the ganglioside GM1, which serves as the cellular receptor for the virus. In this report, we show that binding of VP1 to cell surface GM1 plays a key role in SV40 infection-induced vacuolization. We previously showed that SV40 VP1 mutants defective for GM1 binding fail to induce vacuolization, even though they replicate efficiently. Here, we show that interfering with GM1-VP1 binding by knockdown of GM1 after infection is established abrogates vacuolization by wild-type SV40. Vacuole formation during permissive infection requires efficient virus release, and conditioned medium harvested late during SV40 infection rapidly induces vacuoles in a VP1- and GM1-dependent fashion. Furthermore, vacuolization can also be induced by a nonreplicating SV40 pseudovirus in a GM1-dependent manner, and a mutation in BK pseudovirus VP1 that generates GM1 binding confers vacuole-inducing activity. Vacuolization can also be triggered by purified pentamers of wild-type SV40 VP1, but not by GM1 binding-defective pentamers or by intracellular expression of VP1. These results demonstrate that SV40 infection-induced vacuolization is caused by the binding of released progeny viruses to GM1, thereby identifying the molecular trigger for the activity that led to the discovery of SV40.