Modeling Adenovirus Latency in Human Lymphocyte Cell Lines

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Yange Zhang, Emory University; Wen Huang, Emory University; David A. Ornelles, Wake Forest University; Linda R Gooding, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-09
• Publisher: American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2010, American Society for Microbiology
• Final Published Version (URL): http://jvi.asm.org/content/84/17/8799
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Virology
• Volume: 84
• Issue: 17
• Start Page: 8799
• End Page: 8810
• Grant/Funding Information: This research was supported by grants R01 AI052280 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and RO1 CA127621 from the National Cancer Institute.
• Research Categories: Biology, Virology

Abstract

Species C adenovirus establishes a latent infection in lymphocytes of the tonsils and adenoids. To understand how this lytic virus is maintained in these cells, four human lymphocytic cell lines that support the entire virus life cycle were examined. The T-cell line Jurkat ceased proliferation and died shortly after virus infection. BJAB, Ramos (B cells), and KE37 (T cells) continued to divide at nearly normal rates while replicating the virus genome. Viral genome numbers peaked and then declined in BJAB cells below one genome per cell at 130 to 150 days postinfection. Ramos and KE37 cells maintained the virus genome at over 100 copies per cell over a comparable period of time. BJAB cells maintained the viral DNA as a monomeric episome. All three persistently infected cells lost expression of the cell surface coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) within 24 h postinfection, and CAR expression remained low for at least 340 days postinfection. CAR loss proceeded via a two-stage process. First, an initial loss of cell surface staining for CAR required virus late gene expression and a CAR-binding fiber protein even while CAR protein and mRNA levels remained high. Second, CAR mRNA disappeared at around 30 days postinfection and remained low even after virus DNA was lost from the cells. At late times postinfection (day 180), BJAB cells could not be reinfected with adenovirus, even when CAR was reintroduced to the cells via retroviral transduction, suggesting that the expression of multiple genes had been stably altered in these cells following infection.