To define the potential of mammalian sPLA
2 to confer protection against viral infection, plasmid expression vectors encoding the human group IIA, IID, III, V, VII, X, and XIIA isoforms were prepared and tagged with a COOH-terminal polyhistidine epitope to facilitate detection. When tested for enzymatic activity, groups IIA, III, VII, and X displayed significant sPLA
2 enzymatic activity compared to control supernatants (vector) (
P < 0.05 for IIA;
P < 0.01 for III, VII, and X), and sPLA
2-X was the most active (Fig. , top). Expression of each sPLA
2 was also confirmed by Western blotting with an anti-His antibody (Fig. , bottom). The antiviral effects of recombinant human sPLA
2 cell culture supernatants were tested first by measuring the luciferase reporter gene activity of HIV-1 pseudoviruses on MAGI-CCR5 target cells, a human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell line expressing CD4 and coreceptors CXCR4 and CCR5. Among the different sPLA
2s, the group X isoform showed marked inhibition of the HIV-1
IIIB pseudotype reporter (Fig. ). Though sPLA
2-X displayed the highest enzymatic activity on this substrate, other isoforms were readily detectable by protein expression. There is evidence that different sPLA
2s have different substrate affinities that may determine their biologic effects (
20), suggesting that there is specificity for this effect among the isoforms. In addition, the substrate, a 1,2-dithio analog of diheptanoyl phosphatidylcholine, may be useful in predicting antiviral efficacy, possibly because it may be related to viral envelope lipids.
To examine whether catalytic activity was required for the inhibitory effect of sPLA2-X, wild-type, enzymatically active protein and a catalytically inactive point mutant (with the D47K mutation), termed ΔsPLA2-X, were generated. Though equivalent amounts of proteins were detected, ΔsPLA2-X showed no catalytic activity (Fig. , left). While enzymatically active sPLA2-X markedly inhibited reporter gene expression, similar protein concentrations of inactive ΔsPLA2-X exerted no effect (Fig. , center). sPLA2-X acted primarily through damage to virions, as evidenced by the fact that treatment of the target cells of infection did not significantly reduce viral gene transfer (Fig. , right).
The specificity of the sPLA2-X antiviral effect was assessed on different viral envelopes expressed on lentivirus vectors, including CXCR4-tropic HIV-1IIIB, CCR5-tropic HIV-1ADA, amphotropic MoMuLV, Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP), or a nonenveloped viral vector, recombinant Ad5. Wild-type sPLA2-X showed significant antiviral activity against CCR-5- or CXCR-4-tropic HIV Env, amphotropic MoMuLV, and Ebola virus compared to ΔsPLA2-X but did not show significant inhibition of reporter gene expression by the nonenveloped virus recombinant Ad5 (Fig. ), suggesting that the antiviral activity required the presence of a lipid-containing viral membrane.
The antiviral effect of sPLA
2-X was assessed against HIV-1
BaL (CCR5-tropic) and HIV-1
MN (CXCR4-tropic) stocks produced in PBMCs. Virus preparations were incubated with purified sPLA
2-X or a different catalytically inactive mutant, Δ3sPLA
2-X (H46N, D47E, and Y50F mutations) (
9,
19), prior to infection of the human T-cell leukemia cell line A3R5, a subline of A3.01 cells (
10) expressing both CCR5 and CXCR4. Flow cytometric analysis of intracellular Gag protein was used to assess viral replication. sPLA
2-X treatment substantially reduced T-cell infection by CCR5-tropic HIV-1
BaL (Fig. , right) compared to the catalytically inactive Δ3sPLA
2-X (Fig. , left). A similar reduction in viral replication was seen when sPLA
2-X was incubated with replication-competent CXCR4-tropic HIV-1
MN (Fig. ), suggesting that this antiviral mechanism is effective against diverse lentiviruses with alternative chemokine receptor specificity.
To understand the mechanism of the sPLA
2-X antiviral effect, the ability of sPLA
2-X to lyse virus was examined both for pseudotyped lentivirus vectors and for replication-competent HIV-1
BaL derived from PBMCs. For the pseudotyped lentivirus vector, Ebola virus GP pseudotypes were analyzed first, using gradient-purified virions. The presence of p24Gag in different gradient fractions was first confirmed by immunoprecipitation followed by Western blotting, with peak activity at a density of 1.10 (Fig. , right panel, lane 3). Analysis of virions from this purified fraction revealed reactivity with monoclonal antibody 13C6, known to bind Ebola virus GP on virions (
27) (Fig. , left panel). This subtype IgG2a antibody has been shown to fix complement (
27). Gradient-purified pseudotyped virions were treated with control mouse IgG or 13C6 plus mouse complement. Though virions reacted with this antibody and are able to fix complement, no release of p24Gag was detected, as shown by refractionation through the density gradient (Fig. , right panel, lanes 5 to 7). In contrast, treatment with sPLA
2-X, but not ΔsPLA
2-X (D47K), caused Gag release when these virions were refractionated through a density gradient (Fig. , lower right panel, sPLA
2-X versus ΔsPLA
2-X, lanes 12 to 14). A similar effect was observed with 2F5, a broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibody of subtype IgG1 that binds HIV-1
BaL (Fig. ), confirming its effect on native virus.