Genetic reassortment has been shown to play an important role in the evolution of several segmented RNA viruses and in the epidemiology of associated diseases. Sin Nombre (SN) virus is the cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome throughout the western United States. Like other hantaviruses, it possesses a genome consisting of three negative-sense RNA segments, S, M, and L. Recent analysis has demonstrated the presence of at least three different hantaviruses in Nevada and eastern California, including SN, Prospect Hill-like, and El Moro Canyon-like viruses. In addition, two distinct lineages of SN virus can be found in Peromyscus maniculatus rodents (sometimes in close proximity) trapped at study sites in this region. Data obtained by phylogenetic analysis of sequence differences detected among the S, M, and L genome segments of these SN viruses are consistent with reassortment having taken place between SN virus genetic variants. The results suggest that M (and to a lesser extent S or L) genome segment flow occurs within SN virus populations in P. maniculatus in this region. No reassortment was detected between SN virus and other hantavirus types present in the area. This finding suggests that as genetic distance increases, the frequency of formation of viable reassortants decreases, or that hantaviruses which are primarily maintained in different rodent hosts rarely have the opportunity to genetically interact.

Three genetically distinct members of the Hantavirus genus have been detected in Nevada rodents by RT-PCR and nucleotide sequence analysis. These include Sin Nombre (SN), El Moro Canyon (ELMC), and Prospect Hill (PH)-like viruses which are primarily associated with Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse), Reithrodontomys megalotis (western harvest mouse), and Microtus spp. (voles), respectively. Although this region of the United States is ecologically diverse, rodents infected with different hantaviruses appear to coexist in several different geographical and ecological zones. In two widely separated states, Nevada and North Dakota, PH-like viruses are present in three different species of vole. In addition, ELMC-like virus has been detected in both R. megalotis and M. montanus (mountain vole). SN virus is a cause of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome throughout much of the United States. SN virus RNA is found in 12.5% of P. maniculatus in Nevada and eastern California. Two lineages of SN virus coexist in this region and differ from SN viruses originally found in infected rodents in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. These data show the complexity of hantavirus maintenance in rodents. Distinct hantaviruses or virus lineages can coexist either in different or the same rodent species and in either different or the same geographic or ecological zones.

AIDS-related B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (AIDS-NHL) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). AIDS-NHL is clinically and histologically heterogeneous, but common features include an aggressive clinical course and frequent extranodal presentation. HIV-1 infection of nonimmune cells that interact with malignant B cells at extranodal sites may influence both the development and the clinical presentation of disease. Our previous studies have shown that coculture of B-lymphoma (BL) cells with HIV-1-infected endothelial cells (EC) leads to contact activation of EC and firm BL-cell adhesion. The key event promoting EC-BL-cell adhesion was HIV-1 upregulation of endothelial CD40, which allowed induction of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) in a CD40-dependent manner. The present study was designed to identify the HIV-1 protein(s) that influence EC-BL-cell adhesion. When HIV-1 proteins were individually expressed in EC by using recombinant adenoviruses, cultured BL cells adhered exclusively to Vpu-transduced EC. As with HIV-infected EC, adhesive properties were linked to the capacity of Vpu to upregulate CD40, which in turn allowed efficient expression of VCAM-1. When EC were infected with an HIV-1 pseudotype lacking the Vpu gene, CD40 upregulation and BL-cell adhesive properties were lost, indicating an essential role for Vpu in EC-BL-cell interactions. Thus, these data reveal a novel function for HIV-1 Vpu and further suggest a role for Vpu in the development of AIDS-NHL at EC-rich extranodal sites

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