Characterization of producer cell-dependent restriction of murine leukemia virus replication

We previously reported that the human bronchocarcinoma cell line A549 produces poorly infectious gibbon ape leukemia virus-pseudotyped Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV). In contrast, similar amounts of virions recovered from human fibrosarcoma HT1080 cells result in 10-fold-higher transduction rates (G. Duisit, A. Salvetti, P. Moullier, and F. Cosset, Hum. Gene Ther. 10:189-200, 1999). We have now extended this initial observation to other type-C envelope (Env) pseudotypes and analyzed the mechanism involved. Structural and morphological analysis showed that viral particles recovered from A549 (A549-MLV) and HT1080 (HT1080-MLV) cells were normal and indistinguishable from each other. They expressed equivalent levels of mature Env proteins and bound similarly to the target cells. Furthermore, incoming particles reached the cytosol and directed the synthesis of linear viral DNA equally efficiently. However, almost no detectable circular DNAs could be detected in A549-MLV-infected cells, indicating that the block of infection resulted from defective nuclear translocation of the preintegration complex. Interestingly, pseudotyping of A549-MLV with vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein G restored the amount of circular DNA forms as well as the transduction rates to HT1080-MLV levels, suggesting that the postentry blockage could be overcome by endocytic delivery of the core particles downstream of the restriction point. Thus, in contrast to the previously described target cell-dependent Fv-1 (or Fv1-like) restriction in mammalian cells (P. Pryciak and H. E. Varmus, J. Virol. 66:5959-5966, 1992; G. Towers, M. Bock, S. Martin, Y. Takeuchi, J. P. Stoye, and O. Danos, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:12295-12299, 2000), we report here a new restriction of MLV replication that relies only on the producer cell type.