Limitations inherent to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in its pharmacokinetic properties remain despite over 15 years of broad use. Our laboratory has pioneered a means to improve ART delivery through monocyte-macrophage carriage of nanoformulated drug-encapsulated particles (nanoART). To this end, our prior works sought to optimize nanoART size, structure, and physical properties for cell uptake and antiretroviral activities. To test the functional consequences of indinavir, ritonavir, and efavirenz formulations we investigated relationships between human monocyte and macrophage cytotoxicities and nanoART dose, size, surfactant, and preparation. Wet-milled particles were significantly more cytotoxic to monocytes-macrophages than those prepared by homogenization; with concurrent induction of tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Interestingly, pure suspensions of indinavir and ritonavir at 0.5mM, and efavirenz at 0.1mM and 0.5mM also proved cytotoxic. Individual surfactants and formulated fluconazole neither affected cell function or viability. Although nanoART did not alter brain tight junction proteins ZO-2 and occludin, 0.5mM ritonavir formulations did alter brain transendothelial electric resistance. These results underscore the importance of evaluating the physicochemical and functional properties of nanoART before human evaluations.

The placement of the extreme thermophile Aquifex aeolicus in the bacterial phylogenetic tree has evoked much controversy. We investigated whether adaptations for growth at high temperatures would alter a key functional component of the replication machinery, specifically DnaG primase. Although the structure of bacterial primases is conserved, the trinucleotide initiation specificity for A. aeolicus was hypothesized to differ from other microbes as an adaptation to a geothermal milieu. To determine the full range of A. aeolicus primase activity, two oligonucleotides were designed that comprised all potential trinucleotide initiation sequences. One of the screening templates supported primer synthesis and the lengths of the resulting primers were used to predict possible initiation trinucleotides. Use of trinucleotide-specific templates demonstrated that the preferred initiation trinucleotide sequence for A. aeolicus primase was 5′-d(CCC)-3′. Two other sequences, 5′-d(GCC)-3′ and d(CGC)-3′, were also capable of supporting initiation, but to a much lesser degree. None of these trinucleotides were known to be recognition sequences used by other microbial primases. These results suggest that the initiation specificity of A. aeolicus primase may represent an adaptation to a thermophilic environment.

How neuroinflammation affects signaling pathways leading to human blood–brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction during HIV-1 infection is incompletely understood. We previously demonstrated that signal transducers and activators of transcription-1 (STAT1) signaling is involved in HIV-1 induced BBB damage and is relevant to viral neuropathogenesis. The objective of this study was to delineate the signaling pathways upstream and downstream of STAT1 involved in HIV-1-induced endothelial dysfunction. We show that HIV-1 activation of STAT1 and STAT3 in human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) is associated with induction of promoter activity of the interferon-stimulated response element (ISRE)/interferon-γ-activated sequence (GAS). The STAT1 inhibitor fludarabine diminished HIV-1-induced ISRE/GAS promoter activity. CCR5 neutralizing antibodies and the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY-294002 diminished HIV-1-induced phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3, significantly diminished HIV-1-induced ISRE/GAS promoter activity, and diminished virus-induced monocyte adhesion and transendothelial migration. HIV-1 infection did not phosphorylate janus kinases but induced activation of the phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK1) and the serine-threonine protein kinase AKT, both downstream effectors of PI3K. CCR5 antibodies also diminished virus-induced phosphorylation of PDK1 and AKT. These results suggest that the chemokine receptor CCR5 is partially involved in HIV-1 binding to HBMEC and show cross-talk between STAT1 and PI3K pathways in HIV-1-induced BBB dysfunction.

Bacterial primase is stimulated by replicative helicase to produce RNA primers that are essential for DNA replication. To identify mechanisms regulating primase activity, we characterized primase initiation specificity and interactions with the replicative helicase for gram-positive Firmicutes (Staphylococcus, Bacillus and Geobacillus) and gram-negative Proteobacteria (Escherichia, Yersinia and Pseudomonas). Contributions of the primase zinc-binding domain, RNA polymerase domain and helicase-binding domain on de novo primer synthesis were determined using mutated, truncated, chimeric and wild-type primases. Key residues in the β4 strand of the primase zinc-binding domain defined class-associated trinucleotide recognition and substitution of these amino acids transferred specificity across classes. A change in template recognition provided functional evidence for interaction in trans between the zinc-binding domain and RNA polymerase domain of two separate primases. Helicase binding to the primase C-terminal helicase-binding domain modulated RNA primer length in a species-specific manner and productive interactions paralleled genetic relatedness. Results demonstrated that primase template specificity is conserved within a bacterial class, whereas the primase–helicase interaction has co-evolved within each species.