Isolation of Viral Replication Compartment-enriched Sub-nuclear Fractions from Adenovirus-infected Normal Human Cells

Summary

We provide a novel strategy to isolate viral replication compartments (RC) from adenovirus (Ad)-infected human cells. This approach represents a cell-free system that can help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms regulating viral genome replication and expression as well as regulation of viral-host interactions established at the RC.

Abstract

During infection of human cells by adenovirus (Ad), the host cell nucleus is dramatically reorganized, leading to formation of nuclear microenvironments through the recruitment of viral and cellular proteins to sites occupied by the viral genome. These sites, called replication compartments (RC), can be considered viral-induced nuclear domains where the viral genome is localized and viral and cellular proteins that participate in replication, transcription and post-transcriptional processing are recruited. Moreover, cellular proteins involved in the antiviral response, such as tumor suppressor proteins, DNA damage response (DDR) components and innate immune response factors are also co-opted to RC. Although RC seem to play a crucial role to promote an efficient and productive replication cycle, a detailed analysis of their composition and associated activities has not been made. To facilitate the study of adenoviral RC and potentially those from other DNA viruses that replicate in the cell nucleus, we adapted a simple procedure based on velocity gradients to isolate Ad RC and established a cell-free system amenable to conduct morphological, functional and compositional studies of these virus-induced subnuclear structures, as well as to study their impact on host-cell interactions.

Introduction

Adenoviruses contain a double-stranded DNA genome that replicates in the infected cell nucleus. When the viral DNA enters the nucleus, it localizes adjacent to PML nuclear bodies¹. Following viral early gene expression, the nuclear architecture is dramatically reorganized, inducing formation of viral microenvironments, termed viral Replication Compartments (RC)². Since adenovirus (Ad) RC are sites where viral genome replication and expression of viral late genes take place, they provide an environment for recruitment of all the necessary viral and cellular factors that participate in these processes. Interestingly, a variety of cellular proteins ....

Protocol

1. HFF Cell Culture and Ad-infection

1. Propagate Ad5 WT virus in monolayers of HEK-293 cells and titer as fluorescent forming units (FFU) on HFF cells as described previously⁸.
2. Grow Human Foreskin fibroblasts (HFF) in 10 ml of DMEM/10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) in sterile culture 100 mm dishes at 37 ºC and 5% CO₂ in a humidified incubator. Determine the cell number using a Neubauer chamber by counting cells in the four 16-square sets. The cell number per ml is obtained by calculating the average number of cells in the four 16-square sets and multiplying this number by 10⁴. For each time post-infection included i....

Results

Since viral replication compartments (RC) are subnuclear viral-induced structures composed of proteins and nucleic acids, similar to other nuclear domains, they proved to be amenable to isolation by velocity gradients based on biochemical features. Critical steps in the fractionation protocol are illustrated in Figure 1. At each step the samples need to be monitored by bright field microscopy to ensure integrity of the different sub-cellular fractions. For example, when swelling the cells, incubation tim.......

Discussion

In order to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that govern regulation of cellular activities by viral infection understanding the composition and activities associated with RC would be instrumental. Therefore, to make a detailed analysis of RC, we established a cell-free system that takes advantage of the size and biochemical composition of these virus-induced structures, to isolate subnuclear fractions enriched with RC using a simple procedure that relies on velocity gradients with sucrose cushions. Critical steps of th.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
DMEM	Gibco	12100-046	Warm in 37 ºC water bath before use
Fetal Bovine Serum	Gibco	12484-028
Sucrose, Ultra Pure	Research Organics	0928S	Prepare a 2.55 M stock solution and store at 4 ºC
Dounce homogenizer	Kontess Glass Company	884900-0000
Branson 1800 Ultrasonic Bath	Branson	Z769533 SIGMA	Turn on 15 min before use.
Goat anti-Mouse IgG1 Secondary Antibody, Alexa Fluor 488 conjugate	Life Technologies	A-21121	Use at a 1:2,000 dilution in PBS
Silane-Prep Slides	Sigma	S4651-72EA	Open in a laminar flow cabinet
SuperSignal West Pico Chemiluminescent Substrate	Pierce ThermoScientific	34080