Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) nuclear bodies (also known as ND10) are nuclear substructures that contain several proteins, including PML itself, Sp100, and hDaxx. PML has been implicated in many cellular processes, and ND10 are frequently associated with the replicating genomes of DNA viruses. During herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection, the viral regulatory protein ICP0 localizes to ND10 and induces the degradation of PML, thereby disrupting ND10 and dispersing their constituent proteins. ICP0-null mutant viruses are defective in PML degradation and ND10 disruption, and concomitantly they initiate productive infection very inefficiently. Although these data are consistent with a repressive role for PML and/or ND10 during HSV-1 infection, evidence in support of this hypothesis has been inconclusive. By use of short interfering RNA technology, we demonstrate that depletion of PML increases both gene expression and plaque formation by an ICP0-negative HSV-1 mutant, while having no effect on wild-type HSV-1. We conclude that PML contributes to a cellular antiviral repression mechanism that is countered by the activity of ICP0.Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) nuclear bodies (also known as ND10) are discrete nuclear substructures that are defined by the presence of the promyelocytic leukemia protein, PML. ND10 have been implicated in a great variety of processes, including oncogenesis, apoptosis, viral infection, the stress and interferon responses, DNA repair, the regulation of gene expression, and certain aspects of chromatin structure (for reviews see references 2, 3, 8, 28, and 45). ND10 become intricately associated with the parental genomes of nuclear-replicating DNA viruses, and they are modified by several viral regulatory proteins; structural modification of ND10 induced by these regulatory proteins frequently correlates with the efficiency of viral infection (for reviews, see references 9, 24, and 25). These observations have given rise to the hypothesis that ND10 structures have a repressive effect on viral infection, and viral regulatory proteins that disrupt these structures do so to relieve this repression. However, the evidence in support of this hypothesis is controversial.PML itself has been implicated in the regulation of infection by a variety of RNA viruses (34), adenoviruses (7, 35), and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) (1). In the case of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), the issues of the roles of PML protein and ND10 are complex. HSV-1 immediate-early regulatory protein ICP0 greatly increases the probability that the virus will enter lytic infection, and this activity correlates very well with ICP0-induced degradation of PML and disruption of ND10 (reviewed in references 10, 11, and 18). These observations have encouraged the hypothesis that PML and/or ND10 have a repressive effect on the development of lytic HSV-1 infection and that through its targeting of these structures ICP0 relieves this repression. Indeed, in the absence of ICP0, HSV-1 genomes have a greatly increased probability of ...

Traditional Chinese medicine commands a unique position among all traditional medicines because of its 5000 years of history. Our own interest in natural products from traditional Chinese medicine was triggered in the 1990s, by artemisinin-type sesquiterpene lactones from Artemisia annua L. As demonstrated in recent years, this class of compounds has activity against malaria, cancer cells, and schistosomiasis. Interestingly, the bioactivity of artemisinin and its semisynthetic derivative artesunate is even broader and includes the inhibition of certain viruses, such as human cytomegalovirus and other members of the Herpesviridae family (e.g., herpes simplex virus type 1 and Epstein-Barr virus), hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and bovine viral diarrhea virus. Analysis of the complete profile of the pharmacological activities and molecular modes of action of artemisinin and artesunate and their performance in clinical trials will further elucidate the full antimicrobial potential of these versatile pharmacological tools from nature.

Replication of human cytomegalovirus is limited at the level of nucleocytoplasmic transport of viral capsids, a process that requires the disassembly of the nuclear lamina. Deletion of the protein kinase gene UL97 from the viral genome showed that the activity of pUL97 plays an important role for viral capsid egress. Here, we report that p32, a novel cellular interactor of the viral kinase pUL97, promotes the accumulation of pUL97 at the nuclear membrane by recruiting the p32-pUL97 complex to the lamin B receptor. Transfection of active pUL97, but not a catalytically inactive mutant, induced a redistribution of lamina components as demonstrated for recombinant lamin B receptor-green fluorescent protein and endogenous lamins A and C. Consistent with this, p32 itself and lamins were phosphorylated by pUL97. Importantly, overexpression of p32 in human cytomegalovirus-infected cells resulted in increased efficiency of viral replication and release of viral particles. Thus, it is highly suggestive that the cellular protein p32 recruits pUL97 to induce a dissolution of the nuclear lamina thereby facilitating the nuclear export of viral capsids.The transport of macromolecules in eukaryotic cells is subject to a strict compartmentalization into nucleus and cytoplasm. Exchange reactions between the two compartments are mediated through the nuclear pore complex, and thus the integrity of the nuclear envelope, composed of membrane and lamina constituents, is crucial for intracellular transport pathways. The nuclear lamina, underlining the inner nuclear membrane, contains a variable number of lamin isoforms (which are members of the intermediate filament family of cytoskeletal proteins) and forms a rigid, proteinaceous meshwork. During infection with herpesviruses, the nuclear lamina represents a barrier to the nucleocytoplasmic transport of viral capsids (1). Because of the large size of herpesviral capsids (ϳ120 nm), which does not allow their direct cytoplasmic release through nuclear pores, the structural destabilization of the nuclear lamina is an important prerequisite of virus budding. Lamina destabilization requires site-specific phosphorylation of lamins and lamin-binding membrane proteins. Phosphorylation leads to lamin depolymerization and may also permit their release from lamin-binding membrane proteins, including the lamin B receptor (LBR) 2 (2, 3). Protein kinase C and Cdc2 have been identified as kinases phosphorylating lamins during mitosis (3, 4). Interestingly, protein kinase C is involved in the dissolution of the nuclear lamina in cells infected with murine cytomegalovirus (5). In addition to cellular protein kinases, the activity of virus-encoded protein kinases has been suspected as an important additional critical factor for nuclear export of herpesviruses, such as herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and pseudorabies virus (6, 7). Concerning the replication of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which is a major human pathogenic herpesvirus, little information has been published on destabilization of the n...

Several viruses, including human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), encode proteins that colocalize with a cellular subnuclear structure known as ND10. Since only viral DNA deposited at ND10 initiates transcription, ND10 structures were hypothesized to be essential for viral replication. On the other hand, interferon treatment induces an up-regulation of ND10 structures and viruses have evolved polypeptides that disperse the dot-like accumulation of ND10 proteins, suggesting that ND10 could also be part of an intrinsic defense mechanism. In order to obtain evidence for either a proviral or an antiviral function of ND10, we generated primary human fibroblasts with a stable, short interfering RNA-mediated knockdown (kd) of PML. In these cells, other ND10-associated proteins like hDaxx showed a diffuse nuclear distribution. Interestingly, we observed that HCMV infection induced the de novo formation of ND10-like hDaxx and Sp100 accumulations that colocalized with IE2 and were disrupted, in the apparent absence of PML, in an IE1-dependent manner during the first hours after infection. Furthermore, infection of PML-kd cells with wild-type HCMV at a low multiplicity of infection resulted in enhanced replication. In particular, a significantly increased plaque formation was detected, suggesting that more cells are able to support initiation of replication in the absence of PML. While there was no difference in viral DNA uptake between PML-kd and control cells, we observed a considerable increase in the number of immediate-early (IE) protein-positive cells, indicating that the depletion of PML augments the initiation of viral IE gene expression. These results strongly suggest that PML functions as part of an intrinsic immune mechanism against cytomegalovirus infections.In addition to the conventional innate and adaptive immune responses, it was recently recognized that complex organisms have evolved a set of constitutively expressed genes that are able to repress viral infections. These so-called intrinsic immune mechanisms involve the APOBEC3 class of cytidine deaminases as well as a large family of proteins termed the TRIM family (7, 52). We were interested in determining the role of the interferon-inducible TRIM19, also known as promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML), for human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication. PML is essential for the integrity of a cellular subnuclear structure, termed ND10, which has been shown to colocalize with herpesvirus DNA during infection (47).ND10 domains, also known as nuclear dots, PML nuclear bodies, or promyelocytic oncogenic domains, are spherical nuclear substructures which represent accumulations of multiple cellular proteins like Sp100, hDaxx, BLM, or SUMO-1 that require the PML protein for their formation (51). Since PML constitutes the defining component of ND10, loss of PML consequently leads to a dispersal of other ND10-associated proteins as observed in mouse PML-null fibroblasts (30,66,67). The PML protein was originally discovered in patients suffering from acute promyelocytic leukemia...

The 86-kDa IE2 protein (IE2-p86) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a potent transactivator of viral as well as cellular promoters. Several lines of evidence indicate that this broad transactivation spectrum is mediated by protein-protein interactions. To identify novel cellular binding partners, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using a N-terminal deletion mutant of IE2-p86 comprising amino acids 135 to 579 as a bait. Here, we report the isolation of two ubiquitin-homologous proteins, SUMO-1 and hSMT3b, as well as their conjugating activity hUBC9 (human ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme 9) as specific interaction partners of HCMV IE2. The polypeptides SUMO-1 and hSMT3b have previously been shown to be covalently coupled to a subset of nuclear proteins such as the nuclear domain 10 (ND10) proteins PML and Sp100 in a manner analogous to ubiquitinylation, which we call SUMOylation. By Western blot analysis, we were able to show that the IE2-p86 protein can be partially converted to a 105-kDa isoform in a dose-dependent manner after cotransfection of an epitope-tagged SUMO-1. Immunoprecipitation experiments of the conjugated isoforms using denaturing conditions further confirmed the covalent coupling of SUMO-1 or hSMT3b to IE2-p86 both after transient transfection and after lytic infection of human primary fibroblasts. Moreover, we defined two modification sites within IE2, located in an immediate vicinity at amino acid positions 175 and 180, which appear to be used alternatively for coupling. By using a SUMOylation-defective mutant, we showed that the targeting of IE2-p86 to ND10 occurs independent of this modification. However, a strong reduction of IE2-mediated transactivation of two viral early promoters and a heterologous promoter was observed in cotransfection analysis with the SUMOylation-defective mutant. This suggests a functional relevance of covalent modification by ubiquitin-homologous proteins for IE2-mediated transactivation, possibly by providing an additional interaction motif for cellular cofactors.Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a member of the beta subgroup of herpesviruses, is characterized by its narrow host range and prolonged replicative cycle in cell culture as well as in the infected human host. Generally, HCMV possesses low pathogenicity when infecting healthy individuals. However, it is of considerable clinical importance in immunocompromised patients like transplant recipients or patients suffering from AIDS as well as in prenatally infected newborns (2, 3). As found for other herpesviruses, the lytic cycle gene expression of HCMV occurs in a sequential fashion. Initially after infection, the immediate-early (IE) gene products are the first to be synthesized, followed by the early and late gene products (12,47,68,69). IE gene expression, which does not require any prior viral protein synthesis, can be detected from the UL36-38, US3, TRS1, and major IE gene regions (58, 64, 65). The latter encodes two predominant proteins during the IE phase, the 72-kDa IE1 polypeptide (also called IE1-p72 ...

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a herpesvirus, is a ubiquitously distributed pathogen that causes severe disease in immunosuppressed patients and infected newborns. Efforts are underway to prepare effective subunit vaccines and therapies including antiviral antibodies. However, current vaccine efforts are hampered by the lack of information on protective immune responses against HCMV. Characterizing the B-cell response in healthy infected individuals could aid in the design of optimal vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. To address this problem, we determined, for the first time, the B-cell repertoire against glycoprotein B (gB) of HCMV in different healthy HCMV seropositive individuals in an unbiased fashion. HCMV gB represents a dominant viral antigenic determinant for induction of neutralizing antibodies during infection and is also a component in several experimental HCMV vaccines currently being tested in humans. Our findings have revealed that the vast majority (>90%) of gB-specific antibodies secreted from B-cell clones do not have virus neutralizing activity. Most neutralizing antibodies were found to bind to epitopes not located within the previously characterized antigenic domains (AD) of gB. To map the target structures of these neutralizing antibodies, we generated a 3D model of HCMV gB and used it to identify surface exposed protein domains. Two protein domains were found to be targeted by the majority of neutralizing antibodies. Domain I, located between amino acids (aa) 133–343 of gB and domain II, a discontinuous domain, built from residues 121–132 and 344–438. Analysis of a larger panel of human sera from HCMV seropositive individuals revealed positivity rates of >50% against domain I and >90% against domain II, respectively. In accordance with previous nomenclature the domains were designated AD-4 (Dom II) and AD-5 (Dom I), respectively. Collectively, these data will contribute to optimal vaccine design and development of antibodies effective in passive immunization.

The tegument protein pp71 (UL82) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has previously been shown to transactivate the major immediate-early enhancer-promoter of HCMV. Furthermore, this protein is able to enhance the infectivity of viral DNA and to accelerate the infection cycle, suggesting an important regulatory function during viral replication. To gain insight into the underlying mechanisms that are used by pp71 to exert these pleiotropic effects, we sought for cellular factors interacting with pp71 in a yeast two-hybrid screen. Here, we report the isolation of the human Daxx (hDaxx) protein as a specific interaction partner of HCMV pp71. hDaxx, which was initially described as an adapter protein involved in apoptosis regulation, has recently been identified as a nuclear protein that interacts and colocalizes with PML in the nuclear domain ND10. In order to assess whether pp71 can also be detected in ND10 structures, a vector expressing pp71 in fusion with the green fluorescent protein was used for transfection of human fibroblasts. This revealed a colocalization of pp71 with the ND10 proteins PML and Sp100. In addition, cotransfection of a hDaxx expression vector resulted in an enhanced recruitment of pp71 to ND10. Targeting of pp71 to nuclear dots could also be observed in infected human fibroblasts in the absence of de novo viral protein synthesis. Moreover, cotransfection experiments revealed that pp71-mediated transactivation of the major immediate-early enhancer-promoter was synergistically enhanced in the presence of hDaxx. These results suggest an important role of hDaxx for pp71 protein function.Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a member of the betasubgroup of herpesviruses, is characterized by its narrow host range and prolonged replicative cycle in cell culture, as well as in the infected human host. Generally, HCMV causes asymptomatic infections in immunocompetent individuals; severe disease, however, can result from infection in immunocompromised patients and after intrauterine infection (4).Similar to other herpesviruses, the HCMV open reading frames are expressed in a temporally regulated cascade consisting of three sequential phases, termed immediate early (IE), early (E) and late (L) (19,27,44,47,69,70). IE gene expression results in the synthesis of viral regulatory factors, in particular the major IE proteins IE1-p72 and IE2-p86, which act as strong transactivators of viral early promoters and are therefore required for efficient productive infection (44, 51, 53, 65). Expression from the major IE gene locus is driven by a very strong, complex regulatory element known as the major IE enhancer-promoter (MIEP), which contains several binding sites for known eucaryotic transcription factors (for a review, see reference 48). These in turn modulate gene expression not only in various cell types but also in both differentiated and undifferentiated cells (6,12,23,43,48,50,60,63). In addition to cellular transcription factors, activation of IE transcription is controlled by structural protein components of th...

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