gamma-herpesvirus latency requires t cell evasion during episome maintenance在附加体维护gamma-herpesvirus延迟需要t细胞逃避.pdfVIP

Open access, freely available online PLoS BIOLOGY Gamma-Herpesvirus Latency Requires T Cell Evasion during Episome Maintenance * Neil J. Bennett, Janet S. May, Philip G. Stevenson Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom The gamma-herpesviruses persist as latent episomes in a dynamic lymphocyte pool. Their consequent need to express a viral episome maintenance protein presents a potential immune target. The glycine–alanine repeat of the Epstein– Barr virus episome maintenance protein, EBNA-1, limits EBNA-1 epitope presentation to CD8þ T lymphocytes (CTLs). However, CTL recognition occurs in vitro, so the significance of such evasion for viral fitness is unclear. We used the murine gamma-herpesvirus-68 (MHV-68) to define the in vivo contribution of cis-acting CTL evasion to host colonisation. Although the ORF73 episome maintenance protein of MHV-68 lacks a glycine–alanine repeat, it was equivalent to EBNA-1 in conferring limited presentation on linked epitopes. This was associated with reduced protein synthesis and reduced protein degradation. We bypassed the cis-acting evasion of ORF73 by using an internal ribosome entry site to express in trans-a CTL target from the same mRNA. This led to a severe, MHC class I–restricted and CTL-dependent reduction in viral latency. Thus, despite MHV-68 encoding at least two trans-acting CTL evasion proteins, cis-acting evasion during episome maintenance was essential for normal host colonisation. Citation: Bennett NJ, May JS, Stevenson PG (2005) Gamma-herpesvirus latency requires T cell evasion during episome maintenance. PLoS Biol 3(4): e120. Introduction