Comparison of anti-viral activity of rhesus monkey and cynomolgus monkey TRIM5alphas against human immunodeficiency virus type 2 infection

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) strains vary widely in their ability to grow in Old World monkey (OWM) cells. We previously evaluated several HIV-2 isolates for their sensitivity to cynomolgus monkey (CM) TRIM5alpha, an anti-HIV factor in OWM cells, and found that viruses carrying proline at the 120th position of the capsid protein were sensitive to CM TRIM5alpha, whereas those with either alanine or glutamine were resistant. In the study presented here, we tested these HIV-2 isolates for their sensitivity to rhesus monkey (Rh) TRIM5alpha and found that both CM TRIM5alpha-sensitive and -resistant viruses were restricted by Rh TRIM5alpha. The variable region 1 of the SPRY domain of Rh TRIM5alpha appeared to be the determinant of this difference. Furthermore, a mutagenesis study showed that three amino acid residues TFP at the 339th to 341st positions of Rh TRIM5alpha are important for restricting HIV-2 strains resistant to CM TRIM5alpha.