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SAMHD1 is a host restriction factor that functions to restrict both retroviruses and DNA viruses, based on its nuclear deoxynucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) hydrolase activity that limits availability of intracellular dNTP pools. In the present study, we demonstrate that SAMHD1 expression was increased following human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection, with only a modest effect on infectious virus production. SAMHD1 was rapidly phosphorylated at residue T592 after infection by cellular cyclin-dependent kinases, especially Cdk2, and by the viral kinase pUL97, resulting in a significant fraction of phosho-SAMHD1 being relocalized to the cytoplasm of infected fibroblasts, in association with viral particles and dense bodies. Thus, our findings indicate that HCMV-dependent SAMHD1 cytoplasmic delocalization and inactivation may represent a potential novel mechanism of HCMV evasion from host antiviral restriction activities. Author summary: Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is among the most widespread viruses worldwide, causing severe systemic illness in individuals without a fully competent immune system (e.g., transplanted patients and infants). Therefore, host immune response is crucial to control HCMV replication and dissemination throughout the organism. Some frontline proteins belonging to the innate immune system, known as restriction factors, are already expressed and active even before a pathogen infects a cell and are able to mediate a cell-intrinsic resistance to infections. Among them is SAMHD1, a nuclear deoxynucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) hydrolase that limits the availability of intracellular dNTPs, essential components of growing DNA molecules, including those of replicating viruses. We thus investigated SAMHD1 ability to counteract HCMV infection. We show that SAMHD1 expression was upregulated after infection, but with only a modest effect in limiting viral replication. This was mainly due to HCMV-induced phosphorylation at Threonine-592 (the key residue known to negatively regulate viral restriction), to phosphoT592-SAMHD1 relocalization to the cytoplasm of infected cells, and to its association with viral particles. The unprecedented observation of relocation of phosphoT592-SAMHD1 outside the nucleus may affect SAMHD1 function upon HCMV infection, and thus might represent a novel HCMV-mediated immune evasion strategy that will need further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph: Fig 1 Spindlin1 interacts with HBx.(A) Coimmunoprecipitation of His-myc-Spindlin1 (His-myc-Spin1) with HA-HBx using anti-Myc antibodies in HEK293 cells. HEK293 cells were co-transfected with Flag-tagged HBx wt construct or the HBx alanine substitution mutants (F-HBx Cm5, F-HBx Cm7, F-HBx Cm8, F-HBx Cm9, F-HBx Cm13) and the His-myc-Spin1 plasmid. Cell extracts were immunoprecipitated with anti-Flag antibodies and analyzed by anti-Myc and anti-Flag immunoblot using the Odyssey system (right panel). [Extracted from the article]

Hepatitis B virus infection (HBV) is a major risk factor for the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. HBV replicates from a covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) that remains as an episome within the nucleus of infected cells and serves as a template for the transcription of HBV RNAs. The regulatory protein HBx has been shown to be essential for cccDNA transcription in the context of infection. Here we identified Spindlin1, a cellular Tudor-domain protein, as an HBx interacting partner. We further demonstrated that Spindlin1 is recruited to the cccDNA and inhibits its transcription in the context of infection. Spindlin1 knockdown induced an increase in HBV transcription and in histone H4K4 trimethylation at the cccDNA, suggesting that Spindlin1 impacts on epigenetic regulation. Spindlin1-induced transcriptional inhibition was greater for the HBV virus deficient for the expression of HBx than for the HBV WT virus, suggesting that HBx counteracts Spindlin1 repression. Importantly, we showed that the repressive role of Spindlin1 is not limited to HBV transcription but also extends to other DNA virus that replicate within the nucleus such as Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1). Taken together our results identify Spindlin1 as a critical component of the intrinsic antiviral defense and shed new light on the function of HBx in HBV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV-infected individuals may experience fever episodes. Fever is an elevation of the body temperature accompanied by inflammation. It is usually beneficial for the host through enhancement of immunological defenses. In cultures, transient non-physiological heat shock (42-45°C) and Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) modulate HIV-1 replication, through poorly defined mechanisms. The effect of physiological hyperthermia (38-40uC) on HIV-1 infection has not been extensively investigated. Here, we show that culturing primary CD4+ T lymphocytes and cell lines at a fever-like temperature (39.5°C) increased the efficiency of HIV-1 replication by 2 to 7 fold. Hyperthermia did not facilitate viral entry nor reverse transcription, but increased Tat transactivation of the LTR viral promoter. Hyperthermia also boosted HIV-1 reactivation in a model of latentlyinfected cells. By imaging HIV-1 transcription, we further show that Hsp90 co-localized with actively transcribing provirus, and this phenomenon was enhanced at 39.5°C. The Hsp90 inhibitor 17-AAG abrogated the increase of HIV-1 replication in hyperthermic cells. Altogether, our results indicate that fever may directly stimulate HIV-1 replication, in a process involving Hsp90 and facilitation of Tat-mediated LTR activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]