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Recent evidence suggests that injection drug users who abuse heroin are at increased risk for CNS complications from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Opiate drugs may intrinsically alter the pathogenesis of HIV by directly modulating immune function and by directly modifying the CNS response to HIV. Despite this, the mechanisms by which opiates increase the neuropathogenesis of HIV are uncertain. Herein we describe the effect of morphine and the HIV-1 protein toxin Tat 1-72 on astroglial function in cultures derived from ICR mice. Astroglia maintain the blood brain barrier and influence inflammatory signaling in the CNS. Astrocytes can express μ opioid receptors, and are likely targets for abused opiates, which preferentially activate μ-opioid receptors. While Tat alone disrupts astrocyte function, when combined with morphine, Tat causes synergistic increases in [Ca 2+ ] i. . Moreover, astrocyte cultures treated with morphine and Tat showed exaggerated increases in chemokine release including monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), as well as interleukin-6 (IL-6). Morphine-Tat interactions were prevented by the μ-opioid receptor antagonist β-funaltrexamine, or by immunoneutralizing Tat 1-72 or substituting a non-toxic, deletion mutant (Tat Δ31-61 ). Our findings suggest that opiates may increase the vulnerability of the CNS to viral entry (via recruitment of monocytes/macrophages) and ensuing HIV encephalitis by synergistically increasing MCP-1 and RANTES release by astrocytes. The results further suggest ‡ Abbreviations: alpha chemokine receptor (CXCR); beta chemokine ligand (CCL); beta chemokine receptor (CCR); β-funaltrexamine (β-FNA); calcium-induced calcium release (CICR); excitatory amino acid transporter-2 (EAAT2); granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF); granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF); human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); human immunodeficiency virus encephalitis (HIVE); inositol trisphosphate (IP 3 ); interferon (IFN); interleukin (IL); intracellular Ca 2+ ([Ca 2+ ] i ); monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP); nor-binaltorphimine (nor-BNI); phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase); phospholipase C-γ (PLCγ); regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES); soluble TNF receptor subunit (sTNFR1); stem cell factor (SCF); thrombopoietin (TPO); transactivator of transcription (Tat); tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α); vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

HIV-1 infection results in a chronic illness because longterm highly active antiretroviral therapy can lower viral titers to an undetectable level. However, discontinuation of therapy rapidly increases virus burden. Moreover, patients under highly active antiretroviral therapy frequently develop various metabolic disorders, neurocognitive abnormalities, and cardiovascular diseases. We have previously shown that exosomes containing trans-activating response (TAR) element RNA enhance susceptibility of undifferentiated naive cells to HIV-1 infection. This study indicates that exosomes from HIV-1-infected primary cells are highly abundant with TAR RNA as detected by RT-real time PCR. Interestingly, up to a million copies of TAR RNA/l were also detected in the serum from HIV-1-infected humanized mice suggesting that TAR RNA may be stable in vivo. Incubation of exosomes from HIV-1-infected cells with primary macrophages resulted in a dramatic increase of proinflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and TNF-␤, indicating that exosomes containing TAR RNA could play a direct role in control of cytokine gene expression. The intact TAR molecule was able to bind to PKR and TLR3 effectively, whereas the 5 and 3 stems (TAR microRNAs) bound best to TLR7 and -8 and none to PKR. Binding of TAR to PKR did not result in its phosphorylation, and therefore, TAR may be a dominant negative decoy molecule in cells. The TLR binding through either TAR RNA or TAR microRNA potentially can activate the NF-B pathway and regulate cytokine expression. Collectively, these results imply that exosomes containing TAR RNA could directly affect the proinflammatory cytokine gene expression and may explain a possible mechanism of inflammation observed in HIV-1-infected patients under cART.

Individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus-1 who abuse opiates can have a higher incidence of virus-associated neuropathology. Human immunodeficiency virus does not infect neurons, but viral proteins such as transactivator of transcription and glycoprotein 120, originating from infected glia, are neurotoxic. Moreover, functional changes in glial cells that enhance inflammation and reduce trophic support are increasingly implicated in human immunodeficiency virus neuropathology. In previous studies, co-exposure with morphine enhanced transactivator of transcription neurotoxicity towards cultured striatal neurons. Since those cultures contained µ-opioid receptor-expressing astroglia and microglia, and since glia are the principal site of infection in the central nervous system, we hypothesized that morphine synergy might be glially mediated. A 60 hour, repeated measures paradigm and multiple co-culture models were used to investigate the cellular basis for opiate-enhanced human immunodeficiency virus neurotoxicity. Morphine co-exposure significantly enhanced transactivator of transcription-induced neuron death when glia were present. Synergistic effects of morphine on transactivator of transcription neurotoxicity were greatest with neuron-glia contact, but also occurred to a lesser extent with glial conditioned medium. Importantly, synergy was lost if glia, but not neurons, lacked µ-opioid receptors, indicating that opiate interactions with human immunodeficiency virus converge at the level of µ-opioid receptor-expressing glia. Morphine enhanced transactivator of transcription-induced inflammatory effectors released by glia, elevating reactive oxygen species, increasing 3-nitrotyrosine production by microglia, and reducing the ability of glia to buffer glutamate. But neuron survival was reduced even more with glial contact than with exposure to conditioned medium, suggesting that noxious elements associated with cell contact augment the toxicity due to soluble factors. Similar morphine-transactivator of transcription synergy was also observed in studies with the clade C sequence of HIV-1 transactivator of transcription, which did not cause neuron death unless morphine was present. Several paradoxical observations related to opiate effects were noted when µ-opioid receptors were specifically ablated from either glia or neurons. This suggests that µ-opioid receptor loss in isolated cell types can fundamentally distort cell-to-cell signalling, revealing opponent processes that may exist in individual cell types. Our findings show the critical role of glia in orchestrating neurotoxic interactions of morphine and transactivator of transcription, and support the emerging concept that combined exposure to opiates and human immunodeficiency virus drives enhanced pathology within the central nervous system.

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Opiates exacerbate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Tat(1-72)-induced release of key proinflammatory cytokines by astrocytes, which may accelerate HIV neuropathogenesis in opiate abusers. The release of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1, also known as CCL2), in particular, is potentiated by opiate-HIV Tat interactions in vitro. Although MCP-1 draws monocytes/macrophages to sites of CNS infection, and activated monocytes/microglia release factors that can damage bystander neurons, the role of MCP-1 in neuro-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (neuroAIDS) progression in opiate abusers, or nonabusers, is uncertain. Using a chemotaxis assay, N9 microglial cell migration was found to be significantly greater in conditioned medium from mouse striatal astrocytes exposed to morphine and/or Tat(1-72) than in vehicle-, mu-opioid receptor (MOR) antagonist-, or inactive, mutant Tat(delta31-61)-treated controls. Conditioned medium from astrocytes treated with morphine and Tat caused the greatest increase in motility. The response was attenuated using conditioned medium immunoneutralized with MCP-1 antibodies, or medium from MCP-1(-/-) astrocytes. In the presence of morphine (time-release, subcutaneous implant), intrastriatal Tat increased the proportion of neural cells that were astroglia and F4/80+ macrophages at 7 days post-injection. This was not seen after treatment with Tat alone, or with morphine plus inactive Tat(delta31-61) or naltrexone. Glia displayed increased MOR and MCP-1 immunoreactivity after morphine and/or Tat exposure. The findings indicate that MCP-1 underlies most of the response of microglia, suggesting that one way in which opiates exacerbate neuroAIDS is by increasing astroglial-derived proinflammatory chemokines at focal sites of CNS infection and promoting macrophage entry and local microglial activation. Importantly, increased glial expression of MOR can trigger an opiate-driven amplification/positive feedback of MCP-1 production and inflammation.

Biochemical studies revealed that nonstructural proteins of hepatitis C virus (HCV) interacted with each other and were associated with intracellular membranes. The goals of this study were to determine whether nonstructural viral proteins are colocalized at specific intracellular sites where HCV RNA is replicated and to identify the virus components of the HCV replication complex (RC). Immunofluorescence and subcellular fractionation studies were performed to determine the intracellular colocalization of nonstructural HCV proteins and the replicating RNA in a human hepatoma cell line, Huh7, in which a subgenomic HCV RNA was replicated persistently. The replicating HCV RNA was labelled with 5-bromouridine 59-triphosphate (BrUTP). Results show that each of the nonstructural HCV proteins was colocalized predominantly with the newly synthesized HCV RNA labelled with BrUTP and an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein, calnexin. Consistent with these findings, subcellular fractionation and Western blot analyses revealed that the nonstructural HCV proteins were colocalized with HCV RNA mainly in the membrane fractions. Conversely, the viral nonstructural proteins and RNA remained in the soluble fractions upon treatment with detergent, confirming the membrane association of the HCV RC. HCV RNA in the membrane-bound RC was resistant to RNase treatment, whereas it became sensitive to RNases once the membranes were disrupted by treatment with detergent, suggesting that the HCV RC is assembled within membrane structures. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that HCV RNA replication occurs in the perinuclear ER membrane-bound HCV RC, containing nonstructural viral proteins and RNA. INTRODUCTIONHepatitis C virus (HCV) is an enveloped RNA virus containing a single, positive-stranded RNA approximately 9?6 kb in length (Choo et al., 1989;Reed & Rice, 2000;Rice, 1996). The genomic RNA encodes a large viral polyprotein of about 3000 amino acids, which is proteolytically processed by cellular signal peptidases and viral proteases into structural (C, E1, E2 and possibly p7) and nonstructural (NS2, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A and NS5B) viral proteins (Bartenschlager et al., 1993(Bartenschlager et al., , 1994(Bartenschlager et al., , 1995 Choo et al., 1989;De Francesco & Steinkuhler, 2000; Grakoui et al., 1993; Hijikata et al., 1991;Lin et al., 1994;Reed & Rice, 2000;Rice, 1996;Selby et al., 1994). Recently, subgenomic HCV RNAs containing the nonstructural genes NS2 or NS3 to NS5B were replicated in a human hepatoma cell line, Huh7, suggesting that the nonstructural proteins NS3, NS4A, NS4B, NS5A and NS5B are sufficient for HCV RNA replication in the cell (Blight et al., 2000; Lohmann et al., 1999a). However, the underlying molecular mechanism of HCV RNA replication and the roles of viral and cellular proteins in HCV RNA replication are poorly understood.The replication of most RNA viruses is a complex process, occurring through protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions that require multiple proteins. RNA replication of positive-str...

Least component-based delivery of drug-tagged-nanocarriers across blood-brain-barriers (BBB) will allow site-specific and on-demand release of therapeutics to prevent CNS diseases. We developed a non-invasive magnetically guided delivery of magneto-electric nanocarriers (MENCs), ~20 nm, 10 mg/kg, across BBB in C57Bl/J mice. Delivered MENCs were uniformly distributed inside the brain, and were non-toxic to brain and other major organs, such as kidney, lung, liver, and spleen, and did not affect hepatic, kidney and neurobehavioral functioning.