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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Peptide-based Identification of Functional Motifs and their Binding Partners
Published on: June 30, 2013
HIV-1 Nef Changes the Proteome of T Cells Extracellular Vesicles Depleting IFITMs and Other Antiviral Factors
Mara E da Silva-Januário1, Cristina S da Costa1, Lucas A Tavares1
1Centro de Pesquisa em Virologia (CPV) and Departamento de Biologia Celular e Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract:
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are biomolecule carriers for intercellular communication in health and disease. Nef is a HIV virulence factor that is released from cells within EVs and is present in plasma EVs of HIV-1 infected individuals. We performed a quantitative proteomic analysis to fully characterize the Nef-induced changes in protein composition of T cell-derived EVs and identify novel host targets of HIV. Several proteins with well-described roles in infection or not previously associated with HIV pathogenesis were specifically modulated by Nef in EVs. Among the downregulated proteins are the interferon-induced transmembrane 1, 2, and 3 (IFITM1-3) proteins, broad-spectrum antiviral factors known to be cell-to-cell transferable by EVs. We demonstrate that Nef depletes IFITM1-3 from EVs by excluding these proteins from the plasma membrane and lipid rafts, which are sites of EVs biogenesis in T cells. Our data establish Nef as a modulator of EVs' global protein content and as an HIV factor that antagonizes IFITMs.
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