Suppression of HIV-1 replication in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by fasudil

Suppression of HIV-1 replication in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by fasudil

Hirofumi Akari^a, Yoshihiko Yamamoto^a, Hiroko Hiwada^a, Yasuyoshi Saito^b,
Noriyasu Takayanagi^b, A. Hajime Koyama^a, and Akio Adachi^a

^aDepartment of Virology, The University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Tokushima, Japan;and ^bInstitute for Life Science Research, Asahi Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Shizuoka, Japan

Abstract:Fasudil is a potent inhibitor for various protein kinases such as myosin light chain kinase and protein kinase C. It has been used as a drug for improvement of intracranial vasospasm and following ischaemic diseases. In this report, we demonstrate that fasudil suppressed the replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in mitogen-activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Our finding shows that fasudil may be useful as a new and distinct chemotherapeutic agent against HIV-1 infection. J. Med. Invest. 44:211-214, 1998

Keywords:fasudil, protein kinase inhibitor, HIV-1

INTRODUCTION
Fasudil (1-(5-isoquinolinesulphonyl)-homopiperazine) is a newly developed drug which improves intracranial ischemia as a result of the dilating effect of vasospasm (1, 2). The neuroprotective property of fasudil is due to its effect that inhibits the activities of various protein kinases including myosin light chain kinase, cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase, cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase and protein kinase C (3, 4).
Previous studies have shown that H-7, a protein kinase inhibitor, inhibits the activation of transcription of human immunodeficiency virus type1 (HIV-1) long terminal repeat (5) and HIV-1replication in chronically infected cell lines(6). These effects of H-7 are caused by blockage of the protein kinase C-dependent cascade (5, 6). The similar efficacy of H-7and fasudil as kinase inhibitors led to an idea that fasudil inhibits HIV-1replication. If so, fasudil would be a candidate as a new anti-HIV-1agent whose mechanism is different from that of currently available anti-HIV-1drugs targeted for viral reverse transcriptase (RT) and protease. To address this issue, we examined the potential suppressive effect of fasudil on the replication of HIV-1 in vitro.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cells
A human cervical cell line, HeLa, was maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with10% heat-inactivated fetal calf serum. CD4-positive human lymphocytic cell lines, CEMx174, Jurkat, M8166, and MT-4, were maintained in RPMI1640 medium supplemented with10% heat-inactivated fetal calf serum. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were prepared and used as previously described (7).

Cell proliferation assay
Cell proliferation was evaluated by the modified MTT method designated WST-1as indicated in the manufacture's instruction (Dojindo Laboratories, Kumamoto, Japan).

Transfection and infection
For transfection, uncleaved plasmid DNA designated pNL432 (an infectious molecular clone of HIV-1) (8) was introduced into HeLa cells by the calcium-phosphate coprecipitation method (8). CD4-positive cell lines and PBMCs were infected with cell-free virus samples prepared from transfected HeLa cells as previously described (9).

RT assay
Virion-associated RT activity was measured as described previously (10).

RESULTS
Cytotoxicity of fasudil for T cell lines and PBMCs
As a first step to monitor the effectiveness of fasudil (Asahi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Shizuoka, Japan) against HIV-1, its cytotoxicity for various cell types was evaluated (Fig.1). In a human CD4+ leukemia cell line, Jurkat, obvious cytotoxic effects were observed when fasudil was added to the culture at concentrations higher than100μM, and no cytotoxicity was detected at _~37.5μM of fasudil (Fig.1A). Similar results were obtained in the other human T cell lines, CEMx174, M8166, and MT-4(data not shown). In phytohemagglutinin P (PHA-P) (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, USA.)-stimulated PBMCs, the cytotoxic dose of fasudil was basically similar to that in Jurkat cells. In activated PBMCs cultivated for 24hours in complete medium (RPMI-1640 medium with10% fetal calf serum, L-glutamine, 2-mercaptoethanol and antibiotics) (CM) (Fig.1B) and for 15days in CM supplemented with50U/ml human recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) (Serotec Ltd., Oxford, England) (Fig.1C), the cytotoxic effect was seen at concentrations higher than100μM of fasudil.

Effect of fasudil on HIV-1replication in T cell lines and PBMCs
On the basis of the cytotoxic data of fasudil described above, concentrations below 50μM were used for the inhibition assay of virus replication.
First, the effect of fasudil on HIV-1replication in T cell lines was monitored. As shown in Fig.2, in the two cell lines (CEMx174 and M8166), the virus growth kinetics in the presence (5μM) or absence of fasudil were surprisingly similar. In a repeated experiment, essentially similar results were obtained (data not shown). Furthermore, cultivation of the two cell lines infected with various doses of virus in the presence of higher concentration of fasudil (50μM) gave no significant effects with respect to virus production at14days post-infection (data not shown).
We then asked whether fasudil is effective against HIV-1growth in PBMCs, the natural target cells. Fig.3 shows the replication kinetics of HIV-1 in PHA-P-stimulated PBMCs cultivated in rIL-2-supplemented CM in the presence of various concentrations of fasudil. On the peak day of RT production, the activity was reduced by75%, 50%, 34%, and 33% of that of a control (no fasudil) at concentrations of 40, 20, 10, and 5μM of fasudil, respec-tively. In a repeated experiment, essentially similar results were obtained (data not shown).

DISCUSSION
Our results here showed that fasudil has a suppressive effect on HIV-1growth in activated PBMCs but not in established T cell lines. The basis for this observation is unclear. It has been shown that cell activation is required for HIV-1replication in primary T lymphocytes (11, 12). Fasudil could inhibit the activity of protein kinase(s) required for HIV-1replication in PBMCs but not in T cell lines. It is possible that fasudil affects the function of the nef gene which is known to be important for the viral replication in PBMCs (13, 14) and disease progression(15-17). A recent finding that fasudil inhibits Nef-dependent cytotoxicity (18) may be related to its suppressive effect of HIV-1replication reported here.
Apart from the mechanism for the inhibitory effect, our results show that fasudil has a potential as a candidate for an anti-HIV-1 agent which can be administrated in combination with inhibitors of the viral RT or protease. To further explore the possibility of fasudil as an anti-HIV-1drug, animal experiments using simian immunodeficiency virus/macaque model system are to be done.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Kazuko Yoshida for editorial assistance. This work was supported by grants-in-aid for AIDS research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan, and the Ministry of Health and welfare of Japan.

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Received for publication December 24, 1997 ; accepted January 12, 1998.

1 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Akio Adachi, Ph.D., Department of Virology, The University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima 770-8503, Japan and Fax:+81-886-33-7080.