Development of a cytotoxic T-cell assay in rabbits to evaluate early immune response to human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 infection

Rabbit Models for Studying Human Infectious Diseases

Using an appropriate animal model is crucial for mimicking human disease conditions, and various facets including genetics, anatomy, and pathophysiology should be considered before selecting a model. Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are well known for their wide use in production of antibodies, eye research, atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. However, a systematic description of the rabbit as primary experimental models for the study of various human infectious diseases is unavailable. This review focuses on the human infectious diseases for which rabbits are considered a classic or highly appropriate model, including AIDS (caused by HIV1), adult T-cell leukemia-lymphoma (human T-lymphotropic virus type 1), papilloma or carcinoma (human papillomavirus) , herpetic stromal keratitis (herpes simplex virus type 1), tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), and syphilis (Treponema pallidum). In addition, particular aspects of the husbandry and care of rabbits used in studies of human infectious diseases are described.

Human T lymphotropic virus type 1 SU residue 195 plays a role in determining the preferential CD4+ T cell immortalization/transformation tropism

Human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) mainly causes adult T cell leukemia and predominantly immortalizes/transforms CD4(+) T cells in culture. HTLV-2 is aleukemic and predominantly immortalizes/transforms CD8(+) T cells in culture. We have shown previously that the viral envelope is the genetic determinant of the differential T cell tropism in culture. The surface component (SU) of the HTLV-1 envelope is responsible for binding to the cellular receptors for entry. Here, we dissect the HTLV-1 SU further to identify key domains that are involved in determining the immortalization tropism. We generated HTLV-1 envelope recombinant virus containing the HTLV-2 SU domain. HTLV-1/SU2 was capable of infecting and immortalizing freshly isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells in culture. HTLV-1/SU2 shifted the CD4(+) T cell immortalization tropism of wild-type HTLV-1 (wtHTLV-1) to a CD8(+) T cell preference. Furthermore, a single amino acid substitution, N195D, in HTLV-1 SU (Ach.195) resulted in a shift to a CD8(+) T cell immortalization tropism preference. Longitudinal phenotyping analyses of the in vitro transformation process revealed that CD4(+) T cells emerged as the predominant population by week 5 in wtHTLV-1 cultures, while CD8(+) T cells emerged as the predominant population by weeks 4 and 7 in wtHTLV-2 and Ach.195 cultures, respectively. Our results indicate that SU domain independently influences the preferential T cell immortalization tropism irrespective of the envelope counterpart transmembrane (TM) domain. We further showed that asparagine at position 195 in HTLV-1 SU is involved in determining this CD4(+) T cell immortalization tropism. The slower emergence of the CD8(+) T cell predominance in Ach.195-infected cultures suggests that other residues/domains contribute to this tropism preference.

Distinct transformation tropism exhibited by human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 is the result of postinfection T cell clonal expansion

Human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 are related but pathogenically distinct viruses. HTLV-1 mainly causes adult T cell leukemia, while HTLV-2 is not associated with leukemia. In vitro, HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 predominantly transform CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells, respectively: the genetic determinant maps to the viral envelope. Herein, we investigate whether this transformation tropism occurs during initial infection or subsequently during the cellular transformation process. Since most individuals are chronically infected at the time of detection, we utilized an established rabbit model to longitudinally measure the early HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 infection and replication kinetics in purified CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 were detected in both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells within 1 week postinoculation. In HTLV-1-infected rabbit CD4(+) T cells, proviral burden and tax/rex mRNA expression peaked early, and expression levels were directly proportional to each other. The late expression of the antisense transcript (Hbz or Aph-2) correlated directly with a late proviral burden peak in HTLV-1- or HTLV-2-infected rabbit CD8(+) T cells, respectively. This study provides the first in vivo evidence that these viruses do not exhibit cellular preference during initial infection. We further evaluated the transformation tropism of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 over a 9-week period using in vitro cell growth/immortalization assays. At the early weeks, both HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 showed proportionate growth of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. However, beyond week 5, the predominance of one particular T cell type emerged, supporting the conclusion that transformation tropism is a postinfection event due to selective clonal expansion over time.