Optimized Viral Dose and Transient Immunosuppression Enable Herpes Simplex Virus ICP0-Null Mutants To Establish Wild-Type Levels of Latency In Vivo

By selectively regulating the expression of the trans-dominant-negative mutant polypeptide UL9-C535C, of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) origin binding protein UL9 with the tetracycline repressor (tetR)-mediated gene switch, we recently generated a novel replication-defective and anti-HSV-specific HSV-1 recombinant, CJ83193. The UL9-C535C peptides expressed by CJ83193 can function as a potent intracellular therapy against its own replication, as well as the replication of wild-type HSV-1 and HSV-2 in coinfected cells. In this report, we demonstrate that CJ83193 cannot initiate acute productive infection in corneas of infected mice nor can it reactivate from trigeminal ganglia of mice latently infected by CJ83193 in a mouse ocular model. Given that CJ83193 is capable of expressing the viral ␣, ␤, and ␥1 genes but little or no ␥2 genes, we tested the vaccine potential of CJ83193 against HSV-1 infection in a mouse ocular model. Our studies showed that immunization with CJ83193 significantly reduced the yields of challenge HSV in the eyes and trigeminal ganglia on days 3, 5, and 7 postchallenge. Like in mice immunized with the wild-type HSV-1 strain KOS, immunization of mice with CJ83193 prevents the development of keratitis and encephalitis induced by corneal challenge with wild-type HSV-1 strain mP. Delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) assays demonstrate that CJ83193 can elicit durable cell-mediated immunity at the same level as that of wild-type HSV-1 and is more effective than that induced by d27, an HSV-1 ICP27 deletion mutant. Moreover, mice immunized with CJ83193 developed strong, durable HSV-1-neutralizing antibodies at levels at least twofold higher than those induced by d27. The results presented in this report have shed new light on the development of effective HSV viral vaccines that encode a unique safety mechanism capable of inhibiting the mutant's own replication and that of wild-type virus.Herpesviruses can cause both an acute productive infection and a long-term latent infection characterized by periodic recurrences (54). Among the human herpesviruses, herpes simplex virus types 1 and type 2 (HSV-1 and -2, respectively) are most closely related and share significant DNA sequence homology (15,31,32). Although HSV infections are often asymptomatic, their clinical manifestations include oral-facial infections, genital herpes, neonatal herpes, keratoconjunctivitis, and herpes encephalitis (48,54). Despite the availability of various effective antiviral therapies, the spread of genital herpes infection continues to increase worldwide and has increased by 30% in the United States in the past two decades (19). The failure of antiviral therapy in effectively controlling the spread of HSV disease and the life-long nature of the infection present a strong need for developing safe and efficacious vaccines against HSV infections (48, 54).HSV replicates in epithelial cells and establishes life-long latent infection in neuronal cell bodies within the sensory ganglia of infected individuals. During productive i...

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“…2B). The reactivation efficiency of 7134 was about 10%, consistent with the previous studies of Cai et al (6) and Halford and Schaffer (22).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 81%

The Dominant-Negative Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) Recombinant CJ83193 Can Serve as an Effective Vaccine against Wild-Type HSV-1 Infection in Mice

Augustinova

Hoeller

Yao

2004

J Virol

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“…9,34 This has always been attributed to its myelosuppressive effects without attempts to further define in more detail the molecular basis for this capacity. Interestingly, CPA has been associated with a decrease in iNOS production in alveolar macrophages in response to mycoplasma.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altered expression of antiviral cytokine mRNAs associated with cyclophosphamide's enhancement of viral oncolysis

et al. 2004

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Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are being used as anticancer agents in preclinical and clinical trials. Propagation of OVs inside infected tumors is critical to their efficacy and is mediated by the productive generation of progeny OVs within infected tumor cells. In turn, this progeny can spread the infection to other tumor cells in successive rounds of oncolysis. Previously, we had found that, in rats, cyclophosphamide (CPA) pretreatment increased infection of brain tumors by an intra-arterially administered herpes simplex virus type 1 OV, because it inhibited activation of complement responses, mediated by innate IgM. We also have previously shown that other pharmacologic inhibitors of complement, such as cobra venom factor (CVF), allowed for increased infection. However, in these studies, further inhibition of complement responses by CVF did not result in additional infection of brain tumor cells or in propagation of OV to surrounding tumor cells. In this study, we sought to determine if CPA did lead to increased infection/propagation from initially infected tumor cells. Unlike our results with CVF, we find that CPA administration does result in a time-dependent increase in infection of tumor cells, suggestive of increased propagation, in both syngeneic and athymic models of brain tumors. This increase was due to increased survival of OV within infected tumors and brain surrounding tumors. CPA's effect was not due to a direct enhancement of viral replication in tumor cells, rather was associated with its immunosuppressive effects. RT-PCR analysis revealed that CPA administration resulted in impaired mRNA production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of several cytokines (interferons a/b, interferon g, TNFa, IL-15, and IL-18) with anti-HSV function. These findings suggest that the CPA-mediated facilitation of OV intraneoplastic propagation is associated with a general decrease of antiviral cytokines mRNAs in PBMCs. These findings not only suggest a potential benefit for the addition of transient immunosuppression in clinical applications of oncolytic HSV therapy, but also suggest that innate immunomodulatory pathways may be amenable to manipulation, in order to increase OV propagation and survival within infected tumors.

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“…We have recently demonstrated that a reduction in the size of the inoculum of ICP0-null mutants from 2 ϫ 10 6 to 2 ϫ 10 5 PFU/eye coupled with transient immunosuppression of mutant-infected mice can be used to enable HSV-1 ICP0-null mutant genomes to reach wild-type levels in the TG of latently infected mice (11). Utilizing this procedure to equalize mutant and wild-type genome loads, the goal of the present study was to determine if loss of ICP0 function impairs HSV-1 reactivation from latency.…”

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confidence: 99%

ICP0 Is Required for Efficient Reactivation of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 from Neuronal Latency

Halford

Schaffer

2001

J Virol

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157

155

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Relative to wild-type herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), ICP0-null mutant viruses reactivate inefficiently from explanted, latently infected mouse trigeminal ganglia (TG), indicating that ICP0 is not essential for reactivation but plays a central role in enhancing the efficiency of reactivation. The validity of these findings has been questioned, however, because the replication of ICP0-null mutants is impaired in animal models during the establishment of latency, such that fewer mutant genomes than wild-type genomes are present in latently infected mouse TG. Therefore, the reduced number of mutant viral genomes available to reactivate, rather than mutations in the ICP0 gene per se, may be responsible for the reduced reactivation efficiency of ICP0-null mutants. We have recently demonstrated that optimization of the size of the ICP0 mutant virus inoculum and transient immunosuppression of mutant-infected mice with cyclophosphamide can be used to establish wildtype levels of ICP0-null mutant genomes in latently infected TG (W. P. Halford and P. A. Schaffer, J. Virol. 74: 5957-5967, 2000). Using this procedure to equalize mutant and wild-type genome numbers, the goal of the present study was to determine if, relative to wild-type virus, the absence of ICP0 function in two ICP0-null mutants, n212 and 7134, affects reactivation efficiency from (i) explants of latently infected TG and (ii) primary cultures of latently infected TG cells. Although equivalent numbers of viral genomes were present in TG of mice latently infected with either wild-type or mutant viruses, reactivation of n212 and 7134 from heat-stressed TG explants was inefficient (31 and 37% reactivation, respectively) relative to reactivation of wild-type virus (KOS) (95%). Similarly, n212 and 7134 reactivated inefficiently from primary cultures of dissociated TG cells plated directly after removal from the mouse (7 and 4% reactivation, respectively), relative to KOS (60% reactivation). The efficiency and kinetics of reactivation of KOS, n212, and 7134 from cultured TG cells (treated with acyclovir to facilitate the establishment of latency) in response to heat stress or superinfection with a nonreplicating HSV-1 ICP4 ؊ mutant, n12, were compared. Whereas heat stress induced reactivation of KOS from 69% of latently infected TG cell cultures, reactivation of n212 and 7134 was detected in only 1 and 7% of cultures, respectively. In contrast, superinfection with the ICP4 ؊ virus, which expresses high levels of ICP0, resulted in the production of infectious virus in nearly 100% of cultures latently infected with KOS, n212, or 7134 within 72 h. Thus, although latent mutant viral genome loads were equivalent to that of wild-type virus, in the absence of ICP0, n212 and 7134 reactivated inefficiently from latently infected TG cells during culture establishment and following heat stress. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that ICP0 is required to induce efficient reactivation of HSV-1 from neuronal latency.Unlike productive infection, which is initiated by...

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Optimized Viral Dose and Transient Immunosuppression Enable Herpes Simplex Virus ICP0-Null Mutants To Establish Wild-Type Levels of Latency In Vivo

Cited by 46 publications

References 55 publications

The Dominant-Negative Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) Recombinant CJ83193 Can Serve as an Effective Vaccine against Wild-Type HSV-1 Infection in Mice

The Dominant-Negative Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) Recombinant CJ83193 Can Serve as an Effective Vaccine against Wild-Type HSV-1 Infection in Mice

Altered expression of antiviral cytokine mRNAs associated with cyclophosphamide's enhancement of viral oncolysis

ICP0 Is Required for Efficient Reactivation of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 from Neuronal Latency

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