Regions of the CD127 Cytoplasmic Tail Necessary for HIV-1 Tat Binding

• Main Author: Cherid, Hafsa
• Other Authors: MacPherson, Paul
• Language: en
• Published: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa 2014
• Subjects: HIV-1 Tat; IL-7 receptor; CD127
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31556; http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-6643

Impaired cell mediated immunity is the clinical hallmark of HIV infection yet the manner in which CD8 T-cells are disabled is not yet fully understood. IL-7 signalling is essential for normal CD8 T-cell development and function. Our lab has previously shown decreased expression of the IL-7 receptor a-chain (CD127) on circulating CD8 T-cells in HIV+ patients is mediated by the HIV Tat protein which results in poor CD8 T-cell function. Soluble Tat protein is secreted by infected CD4 T-cells and taken up by neighbouring uninfected CD8 T-cells through endocytosis. Once in the cytoplasm, Tat translocates to the inner leaflet of the cell membrane where it binds directly to the cytoplasmic tail of CD127 inducing receptor aggregation, internalization, and degradation by the proteasome. By removing CD127 from the cell surface, the HIV Tat protein is able to reduce IL-7 signaling and impair CD8 T-cell proliferation and function. To determine which domain(s) in the cytoplamic tail of CD127 are required for interaction with Tat, a series of plasmids encoding for CD127 deletion mutants were successfully created. These series of mutant CD127 coding sequences were transfected into a eukaryotic expression system, the Jurakt cell line, where CD127 mutants were successfully expressed. Before determine which region on CD127 is required for Tat binding, an optimized Ni-NTA column system was used to successfully isolate histidine-tagged HIV-1 Tat at a high yield and purity from E. coli. This HIV Tat protein was used to treat the lysates of the Jurakt cells transfected with the panel of CD127 mutants. CD127 was then immunoprecipitated, followed by Western analysis of the immune complexes to detect Tat protein. Tat was immunoprecipitated with all CD127 mutants suggests neither tyrosine 449, box 1, the acidic region, serine region nor C-tail are specifically required for Tat binding to CD127.