Novel anti-HIV-1 activity produced by conjugating unsulfated dextran with polyL-lysine.

A conjugate of polyL-lysine (PLL) with unsulfated dextran produced by reductive amination was found to have remarkable anti-HIV-1 activity against both the macrophage-tropic R5 virus Ba-L and T-cell line tropic X4 virus IIIB strains, although neither PLL nor dextran has such activity. The conjugate is a pseudoproteoglycan (pseudoPG) that simulates the structure of a proteoglycan. Conjugation with dextran was found to produce an antiviral effect in three kinds of assay systems including a human CD4(+) T-cell line, and the pseudoPG synthesized using 10 kDa PLL and 10 kDa dextran showed EC(50) 4-40 times lower than that of sulfated dextran or heparin against Ba-L and EC(50) equal to that against IIIB, indicating that PLL-dextran (PLL-Dex) was more effective against R5 virus than sulfated polysaccharides. PLL-Dex significantly suppressed a clinically isolated R5 virus from primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells. PLL-Dex interacted with the virus during adsorption to the cell and also decreased virus entry into the cell, suggesting PLL-Dex has multiple preventive mechanisms against HIV-1.

Entry of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 is augmented by heparin sulfate proteoglycans bearing short heparin-like structures.

Three molecules have been identified as the main cellular factors required for binding and entry of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1): glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), heparan sulfate (HS), and neuropilin 1 (NRP-1). However, the precise mechanism of HTLV-1 cell tropism has yet to be elucidated. Here, we examined the susceptibilities of various human cell lines to HTLV-1 by using vesicular stomatitis virus pseudotypes bearing HTLV-1 envelope proteins. We found that the cellular susceptibility to HTLV-1 infection did not correlate with the expression of GLUT1, HS, or NRP-1 alone. To investigate whether other cellular factors were responsible for HTLV-1 susceptibility, we conducted expression cloning. We identified two HS proteoglycan core proteins, syndecan 1 and syndecan 2, as molecules responsible for susceptibility to HTLV-1. We found that treatment of syndecan 1-transduced cells (expressing increased HS) with heparinase, a heparin-degradative enzyme, reduced HTLV-1 susceptibility without affecting the expression levels of HS chains. To further elucidate these results, we characterized the expression of HS chains in terms of the mass, number, and length of HS in several syndecan 1-transduced cell clones as well as human cell lines. We found a significant correlation between HTLV-1 susceptibility and the number of HS chains with short chain lengths. Our findings suggest that a combination of the number and the length of HS chains containing heparin-like regions is a critical factor which affects the cell tropism of HTLV-1.

Irradiation with carbon ion beams induces apoptosis, autophagy, and cellular senescence in a human glioma-derived cell line.

PURPOSE: We examined biological responses of human glioma cells to irradiation with carbon ion beams (C-ions). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A human glioma-derived cell line, NP-2, was irradiated with C-ions. Apoptotic cell nuclei were stained with Hoechst 33342. Induction of autophagy was examined either by staining cells with monodansylcadaverine (MDC) or by Western blotting to detect conversion of microtuble-associated protein light chain 3 (MAP-LC3) (LC3-I) to the membrane-bound form (LC3-II). Cellular senescence markers including induction of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-gal) were examined. The mean telomere length of irradiated cells was determined by Southern blot hybridization. Expression of tumor suppressor p53 and cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(WAF1/CIP1) in the irradiated cells was analyzed by Western blotting. RESULTS: When NP-2 cells were irradiated with C-ions at 6 Gy, the major population of the cells died of apoptosis and autophagy. The residual fraction of attached cells (<1% of initially irradiated cells) could not form a colony: however, they showed a morphological phenotype consistent with cellular senescence, that is, enlarged and flattened appearance. The senescent nature of these attached cells was further indicated by staining for SA-beta-gal. The mean telomere length was not changed after irradiation with C-ions. Phosphorylation of p53 at serine 15 as well as the expression of p21(WAF1/CIP1) was induced in NP-2 cells after irradiation. Furthermore, we found that irradiation with C-ions induced cellular senescence in a human glioma cell line lacking functional p53. CONCLUSIONS: Irradiation with C-ions induced apoptosis, autophagy, and cellular senescence in human glioma cells.