title: Engineering of Lactobacillus jensenii to secrete RANTES and a CCR5 antagonist analogue as live HIV-1 blockers.
abstract: The development of effective microbicides for the prevention of HIV-1 sexual transmission represents a primary goal for the control of AIDS epidemics worldwide. A promising strategy is the use of bacteria belonging to the vaginal microbiota as live microbicides for the topical production of HIV-1 inhibitors. We have engineered a human vaginal isolate of Lactobacillus jensenii to secrete the anti-HIV-1 chemokine RANTES, as well as C1C5 RANTES, a mutated analogue that acts as a CCR5 antagonist and therefore is devoid of proinflammatory activity. Full-length wild-type RANTES and C1C5 RANTES secreted by L. jensenii were purified to homogeneity and shown to adopt a correctly folded conformation. Both RANTES variants were shown to inhibit HIV-1 infection in CD4(+) T cells and macrophages, displaying strong activity against HIV-1 isolates of different genetic subtypes. This work provides proof of principle for the use of L. jensenii-produced C1C5 RANTES to block HIV-1 infection of CD4(+) T cells and macrophages, setting the basis for the development of a live anti-HIV-1 microbicide targeting CCR5 in an antagonistic manner.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy. vangelista.luca@hsr.it
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vangelista
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Secchi
authors.forename: Xiaowen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bachi
authors.forename: Letong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lusso
mesh_terms: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D065100:CCR5 Receptor Antagonists; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018946:Chemokine CCL5 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D065100:CCR5 Receptor Antagonists; D018946:Chemokine CCL5