A cellular factor binding to the TAATGARAT DNA sequence prevents the expression of the HSV immediate-early genes following infection of nonpermissive cell lines derived from dorsal root ganglion neurons

HSV1 latent transcription and non-coding RNA: A critical retrospective

Virologists have invested great effort into understanding how the herpes simplex viruses and their relatives are maintained dormant over the lifespan of their host while maintaining the poise to remobilize on sporadic occasions. Piece by piece, our field has defined the tissues in play (the sensory ganglia), the transcriptional units (the latency-associated transcripts), and the responsive genomic region (the long repeats of the viral genomes). With time, the observed complexity of these features has compounded, and the totality of viral factors regulating latency are less obvious. In this review, we compose a comprehensive picture of the viral genetic elements suspected to be relevant to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) latent transcription by conducting a critical analysis of about three decades of research. We describe these studies, which largely involved mutational analysis of the notable latency-associated transcripts (LATs), and more recently a series of viral miRNAs. We also intend to draw attention to the many other less characterized non-coding RNAs, and perhaps coding RNAs, that may be important for consideration when trying to disentangle the multitude of phenotypes of the many genetic modifications introduced into recombinant HSV1 strains.

Neurotropism of herpes simplex virus type 1 in brain organ cultures

The mechanism of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) penetration into the brain and its predilection to infect certain neuronal regions is unknown. In order to study HSV-1 neurotropism, an ex vivo system of mice organotypic brain slices was established and the tissue was infected with HSV-1 vectors. Neonate tissues showed restricted infection confined to leptomeningeal, periventricular and cortical brain regions. The hippocampus was the primary parenchymatous structure that was also infected. Infection was localized to early progenitor and ependymal cells. Increasing viral inoculum increased the intensity and enlarged the infected territory, but the distinctive pattern of infection was maintained and differed from that observed with adenovirus and Vaccinia virus. Neonate brain tissues were much more permissive for HSV-1 infection than adult mouse brain tissues. Taken together, these results indicate a complex interaction of HSV-1 with different brain-cell types and provide a useful vehicle to elucidate the mechanisms of viral neurotropism.

HSV-1-based vectors for gene therapy of neurological diseases and brain tumors: part I. HSV-1 structure, replication and pathogenesis

The design of effective gene therapy strategies for brain tumors and other neurological disorders relies on the understanding of genetic and pathophysiological alterations associated with the disease, on the biological characteristics of the target tissue, and on the development of safe vectors and expression systems to achieve efficient, targeted and regulated, therapeutic gene expression. The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) virion is one of the most efficient of all current gene transfer vehicles with regard to nuclear gene delivery in central nervous system-derived cells including brain tumors. HSV-1-related research over the past decades has provided excellent insight into the structure and function of this virus, which, in turn, facilitated the design of innovative vector systems. Here, we review aspects of HSV-1 structure, replication and pathogenesis, which are relevant for the engineering of HSV-1-based vectors.

Human herpes viruses latent infection in the nervous system

The neurotropic herpes viruses, HSV-1, HSV-2 and VZV, colonize and establish latent infection in human peripheral sensory ganglia. Recurrent diseases due to reactivation of these viral pathogens can take place despite an effective immune response. Molecular, cellular, physiological and immune mechanisms work in concert to enable the establishment of latency, the maintenance of the latent state for the entire life of the host, and the reactivation infection. Although all three viruses belong to the same family and establish latent infection in the same tissue, the clinical pattern of their reactivation is quite different. This review covers current knowledge of the basis of these infections, and offers a theory explaining the basis of HSV-1 latent infection and the differences of the disorders caused by HSV-1 and VZV reactivation in humans.

Repression of a herpes simplex virus immediate-early promoter by the Oct-2 transcription factor is dependent on an inhibitory region at the N terminus of the protein

The B-cell form of the Oct-2 transcription factor Oct 2.1 can activate the herpes simplex virus immediate-early gene 3 (IE3) promoter, whereas the neuronally expressed Oct 2.4 and 2.5 forms of the protein, which contain a different C terminus, can repress this promoter. Here we show that partial or full deletion of the C terminus of Oct 2.1 in the presence of an intact N terminus results in a protein which can strongly repress the IE3 promoter. In contrast, deletion of the entire N terminus or a short region within it leaving the C terminus intact results in a very strong activator. Deletion of both N and C termini leaving only the isolated POU domain generates only a very weak repressor. The N-terminal region defined in this way can repress a heterologous promoter when linked to the DNA-binding domain of the GAL4 factor, indicating that it can function as an independent inhibitory domain. These results indicate that a specific region within the N terminus common to Oct 2.1, 2.4, and 2.5 plays a critical role in the ability of neuronally expressed forms of Oct-2 to repress the IE3 promoter but can do so only when the C-terminal region of Oct 2.1 is altered or deleted.

Repression of a herpes simplex virus immediate-early promoter by the Oct-2 transcription factor is dependent on an inhibitory region at the N terminus of the protein

The B-cell form of the Oct-2 transcription factor Oct 2.1 can activate the herpes simplex virus immediate-early gene 3 (IE3) promoter, whereas the neuronally expressed Oct 2.4 and 2.5 forms of the protein, which contain a different C terminus, can repress this promoter. Here we show that partial or full deletion of the C terminus of Oct 2.1 in the presence of an intact N terminus results in a protein which can strongly repress the IE3 promoter. In contrast, deletion of the entire N terminus or a short region within it leaving the C terminus intact results in a very strong activator. Deletion of both N and C termini leaving only the isolated POU domain generates only a very weak repressor. The N-terminal region defined in this way can repress a heterologous promoter when linked to the DNA-binding domain of the GAL4 factor, indicating that it can function as an independent inhibitory domain. These results indicate that a specific region within the N terminus common to Oct 2.1, 2.4, and 2.5 plays a critical role in the ability of neuronally expressed forms of Oct-2 to repress the IE3 promoter but can do so only when the C-terminal region of Oct 2.1 is altered or deleted.

A molecular and cellular model to explain the differences in reactivation from latency by herpes simplex and varicella-zoster viruses

There are marked similarities in the biological properties of the human neurotropic herpesviruses herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV), including their ability to establish lifelong latent infections in human peripheral sensory ganglia (PSG). Despite this, their patterns of reactivation are quite different: HSV-1 reactivations occur many times during a lifetime, they are localized to the cutaneous distribution of a single sensory nerve, they are not associated with sensory symptomatology and their frequency decreases with age. VZV recurrence on the other hand is usually a single event which tends to appear with advancing age, its cutaneous eruption involves an entire dermatome and is usually extremely painful. To help explain these differences, we have formulated a model based on current knowledge of the molecular and cellular basis of latent infection in the nervous system. We suggest that the amount of latent viral DNA and RNA in the latently infected tissue (higher with HSV-1), the cellular location of latent virus (neuronal in HSV-1, probably non-neuronal in VZV), the presence or absence of viral replication in the PSG during reactivation together with the host immune response, are all key determinants of the clinical expression of viral reactivation.

Altered protein binding to the octamer motif appears to be an early event in programmed neuronal cell death

Electrophoretic mobility-shift assays were used to characterize binding of nuclear proteins to consensus sequences for Sp1, E2F, octamer, and cAMP responsive enhancer element (CRE) during neuronal death in vitro after removal of nerve growth factor (NGF). Molecular events occurring prior to cell death in terminally differentiated PC12 cells could be divided into three phases: (i) within 2 hr of removing NGF, binding to the octamer sequence decreased, (ii) after 5-7 hr an increase in binding to CRE occurred; and (iii) after 14 hr (the point at which 50% of the cells are committed to die) a decrease in binding to the Sp1 sequence occurred. Assays performed with extracts from sympathetic ganglia indicated that changes in binding to CRE and octamer motifs also occurred during the period of developmental cell death in vivo. Double-stranded oligonucleotides were delivered to neurons to act as dominant negative "promoters" unable to couple to transcriptional events but capable of binding and sequestering transcription factors. Double-stranded but not single-stranded octamer oligonucleotides increased cell death of primary cultures of sympathetic neurons. Most of the induced neuronal cell death could be blocked with NGF, which is consistent with oligonucleotides activating an endogenous death program rather than having a nonspecific toxic effect. Other double-stranded oligonucleotides as well as a mutant octamer oligonucleotide had little or no effect on cell death. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that cell death results from a cascade of cellular and molecular events and that an early event in programmed neuronal cell death is a decrease in binding of transcription factor(s) to octamer motif sequences.

Molecular biology of herpes simplex virus type 1 latency in the nervous system

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is one of the best studied examples of viral ability to remain latent in the human nervous system and to cause recurrent disease by reactivation. Intensive effort was directed in recent years to unveil the molecular viral mechanisms and the virus-host interactions associated with latent HSV infection. The discovery of the state of the latent viral DNA in nervous tissues and of the presence of latency-associated gene expression during latent infection, both differing from the situation during viral replication, provided important clues relevant to the pathogenesis of latent HSV infection. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on the site of latent infection, the molecular phenomena of latency, and the mechanisms of the various stages of latency: acute infection, establishment and maintenance of latency, and reactivation. This information paved the way to recent trials aiming to use herpes viruses as vectors to deliver genes into the nervous system, an issue that is also addressed in this review.

The octamer-binding protein Oct-2 represses HSV immediate-early genes in cell lines derived from latently infectable sensory neurons

Transcription of herpes simplex virus (HSV) immediate-early (IE) genes does not occur in sensory neurons latently infected with the virus or following infection of neuronal cell lines. In neuronal cell lines this inability results from the weak activity of the viral IE promoters, which is caused by a neuron-specific repressor factor that binds specifically to the TAATGARAT motif in these promoters and to related octamer elements. Cells expressing this repressor contain an additional octamer-binding protein that is absent from permissive cells. We identify this factor as the lymphocyte- and neuron-specific octamer-binding protein Oct-2 and show that Oct-2 mRNA is also present in dorsal root ganglion neurons, the natural site of HSV latency in vivo. Moreover, artificially elevated expression of Oct-2 can repress the IE promoter. The potential role of Oct-2 in the initiation and maintenance of in vivo latent infection with HSV is discussed.