HIV-1 Vpu promotes phagocytosis of infected CD4+ T cells by macrophages through downregulation of CD47

Cong, Lijun; Sugden, Scott M.; Leclair, Pascal; Lim, Chinten James; Pham, Tram NQ.; Cohen, Éric A.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remodels the cell surface of infected cells to facilitate viral dissemination and promote immune evasion. The membrane-associated Vpu accessory protein encoded by HIV-1 plays a key role in this process by altering cell surface levels of multiple host proteins. Using an unbiased quantitative plasma membrane profiling approach, we previously identified CD47 as a putative host target downregulated by Vpu. CD47 is a ubiquitously-expressed cell surface protein that interacts with the myeloid cell inhibitory receptor SIRPα to deliver a “don’t-eat-me” signal, thus protecting cells from phagocytosis. In this study, we investigate whether CD47 modulation by HIV-1 Vpu might promote the susceptibility of macrophages to viral infection via phagocytosis of infected CD4+ T cells. Indeed, we find that Vpu downregulates CD47 expression on infected CD4+ T cells leading to an enhanced capture and phagocytosis by macrophages. Interestingly, it is through this process that a CCR5-tropic transmitted/founder (T/F) virus, which otherwise poorly infects macrophages in its cell-free form, becomes infectious in macrophages. Importantly, we show that HIV-1-infected cells expressing a Vpu-resistant CD47 mutant are less prone to infect macrophages through phagocytosis. Mechanistically, Vpu forms a physical complex with CD47 through its transmembrane domain and targets the latter for lysosomal degradation. These results reveal a novel role of Vpu in modulating macrophage infection, which has important implications for HIV-1 transmission in early stages of infection and the establishment of viral reservoir. IMPORTANCE Macrophages play critical roles in HIV transmission, viral spread early in infection, and as a reservoir of virus. Selective capture and engulfment of HIV-1 infected T cells was shown to drive efficient macrophage infection suggesting that this mechanism represents an important mode of infection notably for weakly macrophage-tropic T/F viruses. In this study, we provide insight into the signals that regulate this process. We show that the HIV-1 accessory protein Vpu downregulates cell surface levels of CD47, a host protein that interacts with the inhibitory receptor SIRPα to deliver a “don’t-eat-me” signal to macrophages. This allows for enhanced capture and phagocytosis of infected T cells by macrophages, ultimately leading to their productive infection even with T/F virus. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms governing the intercellular transmission of HIV-1 to macrophages with implications for the establishment of the macrophage reservoir and early HIV-1 dissemination in vivo.