Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activity in various U937 cell subclones with different susceptibility to HIV-1 infection: its dramatic decrease following persistent virus infection.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, a nuclear enzyme, is suggested to be involved in apoptotic cell death. It is also known that apoptotic cell death following HIV-1 infection is the most important feature of AIDS pathogenesis. Thus, to evaluate the relations between the enzyme and HIV-1 infection, we examined the enzyme activity of several subclones of human promonocytic cell line U937, which showed different susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. The nuclear extracts of two "high type clones" (possessing high susceptibility to HIV-1 infection) contained approximately 4 to 7-fold less enzyme than two low type clones when assayed under a full activation of enzyme. Parent clone, possessing an intermediate susceptibility to HIV-1, showed an intermediate enzyme level, suggesting that low level of this enzyme in cells is important for an effective infection of HIV-1. Furthermore, when these U937 subclones persistently infected with HIV-1 were examined, a dramatic decrease of the enzyme activity, reaching 2 to 16% of uninfected cells, was observed in all of these clones. The levels of poly(ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase in these clones were relativity unchanged. Activity gel analysis and immunoblotting of the enzyme in the clones revealed that the low enzyme activities observed in uninfected "high type clones" and all HIV-1-infected clones were due to a marked decrease of the enzyme protein itself. All of these results suggest that HIV-1 infection involves some mechanism to downregulate cellular poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase and that a lower level of the enzyme may be essential for an effective production of the virus and/or for a stable virus/host interaction.