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S Deshmane

Publications and source records attributed to S Deshmane.

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Precocious axons and improved survival of rat hippocampal neurons on lysine-alanine polymer substrates.

We tested the hypothesis that other polymers of lysine would be better substrates for culture of CNS neurons than polylysine itself. In a serum-free medium optimized for survival of hippocampal neurons grown on substrates of poly-D-lysine, 13% more neurons survived on substrates to which a sequential copolymer of lysine and alanine (LAS) was applied (P = 0.006). The effect was specific for the sequential polymer, in contrast to the random copolymer of lysine and alanine. This suggests that average cationic charge density is not as important as the spacing of these charges. More dramatically, immunostaining for the axon-associated microtubule-associated protein, tau, indicated a 2-fold higher rate of fiber growth on LAS. The somatodendritic cytoskeletal component MAP2 also appeared to be increased in cells cultured on LAS. This suggests that cytoskeletal differentiation in general and axon formation in particular are stimulated by the LAS substrate. Scanning electron microscopy supported this conclusion. By circular dichroism, the conformation of LAS in phosphate-buffered saline appeared to be a random coil, indistinguishable from poly-D-lysine. These results indicate that LAS is a superior substrate to polylysine for growth of CNS neurons. LAS may be useful for regeneration of damaged circuits in the CNS as well as a substrate for connections to a neuroprosthesis.

Alanine↗

An HSV LAT null mutant reactivates slowly from latent infection and makes small plaques on CV-1 monolayers.

A Herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-I) strain 17 mutant deleted between the NotI and HpaI restriction sites of the latency associated transcript (LAT) region has been constructed. The mutant, therefore, contains a deletion of the putative LAT promoter and is called 17N/H. The 17N/H isolate established latent infections in mice nearly as efficiently as its wildtype parent. However, like other LAT null mutants, 17N/H reactivates from explanted ganglia with much slower kinetics than its LAT competent parent. In tissue culture, although 17N/H produces as much virus per cell as its strain 17 parent, it produces small plaques. The small plaque phenotype appears to be due to the inability of the virus to be released from the infected cell into the medium, following low but not high multiplicities of infection (m.o.i.). The mutant was also shown to produce an aberrant LAT homologous transcript of 1.1 kb as well as overproduce an approximately 29,000-Da HSV-specific polypeptide, which is barely detectable in wildtype infected cells. Rescuants of the 17N/H defect were constructed using a 10-kb restriction fragment containing viral sequences spanning the deletion, make large plaques, and have reactivation patterns and infected cell gene product profiles indistinguishable from the 17 parent. This shows that the phenotypes observed in 17N/H are reversed when the deletion, or at most sequences within 5 kb of each side of the deletion, is corrected. The possibilities that the defect in viral egress from infected cell, the small LAT homologous transcript, and the accumulation of the 29,000 Da polypeptide are related to the delayed reactivation kinetics are discussed.

Base Sequence↗

A herpes simplex virus type 1 mutant lacking the ICP0 introns reactivates with normal efficiency.

Previous evidence suggests that the latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene of herpes simplex virus type 1 appears to have a role during reactivation of latent virus because viruses which are null mutants in this gene reactivate slowly or less efficiently than wild-type viruses. Mapping studies have shown that the LAT gene covers a region of about 8.5 kb that overlaps the ICP0 gene in the repeat long region of the herpes simplex virus genome. Previously, we had constructed a mutant with a deletion in the region of the LAT gene encoding a stable 2-kb RNA species (that accumulates to high levels in latently infected cells) and had shown that it reactivates normally (T.M. Block, J.G. Spivack, I. Steiner, S. Deshmane, M.T. McIntosh, R.P. Lirette, and N.W. Fraser, J. Virol. 64:3417-3426, 1990). We now show that a mutant which has two deletions downstream of this region (deleted in both ICP0 introns) reactivates normally in explant cocultivation assays. Thus, the slow or inefficient reactivation phenotype of herpes simplex virus type 1 LAT null mutants is not assignable to this region of the LAT gene.

Animals↗

Induction of cellular transcription factors in trigeminal ganglia of mice by corneal scarification, herpes simplex virus type 1 infection, and explantation of trigeminal ganglia.

In a mouse model for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) latency in which the virus was inoculated via the eye after corneal scarification, HSV-1 replicated in corneal epithelial cells and infected the nerve cell endings. HSV-1 reached the trigeminal ganglia by fast axonal transport between 2 and 10 days postinfection (p.i.) and established a latent infection in neuronal cells or replicated and spread to nonneuronal cells. By using in situ hybridization, we showed that cellular transcription factors are stimulated by HSV-1 infection in trigeminal ganglia. This stimulation is biphasic, peaking at 1 and 3 to 4 days p.i. The first peak involves c-jun and oct-1 expression in neurons, and the second involves c-jun, c-fos, and oct-1 expression in neurons and nonneuronal cells. Corneal scarification, alone or followed by infection with UV-inactivated HSV-1, induced monophasic c-jun and oct-1 expression in some neurons of the trigeminal ganglia, with a peak at 1 day p.i. Corneal infection without prior scarification induced c-jun, c-fos, and oct-1 expression in some neuronal and nonneuronal cells of the trigeminal ganglia 2 to 9 days p.i. Explanation of ganglia from latently infected animals resulted in reactivation of the latent virus. Independently of the presence of latent HSV-1 in explanted ganglia, expression of c-fos, c-jun, and oct-1 was induced first in nonneuronal cells, peaking 6 to 10 h postexplantation, and then in neuronal cells, with a peak at 24 h after explantation when expression of viral replicative genes was first detectable. Since ocular HSV-1 infection, corneal scarification, and explantation of trigeminal ganglia all resulted in induction of expression of cellular transcription factors in ganglia, these factors may play a critical role in the permissiveness of cells for HSV-1 replication during acute infection, latency, and reactivation.

Animals↗

A herpes simplex virus type 1 latency-associated transcript mutant reactivates with normal kinetics from latent infection.

The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) latency-associated transcripts (LATs) accumulate in neuronal nuclei of latently infected ganglia. Explant reactivation kinetics of LAT deletion mutants in the mouse eye model have suggested a role for the LATs in the reactivation process. This report describes the construction and characterization of an HSV-1 strain HFEM mutant, TB1, disrupted within both copies of the LAT gene. TB1 contains a 440-base-pair segment of bacteriophage lambda DNA in place of a 168-base-pair deletion within the transcribed portion of the LAT gene. The 2.0-kilobase LAT was not produced after infection of tissue culture cells with TB1, but a 0.7- to 0.8-kilobase RNA was expressed. TB1 did establish latent infection after corneal inoculation as efficiently as the parental virus, and its reactivation kinetics from explanted ganglia were similar to those of HFEM. During latent infection with TB1, HSV-1 transcripts were not detectable. Rescuant virus (TB1-R) contained intact LAT genes, synthesized full-length LAT transcripts during productive infection in tissue culture, and reactivated from ganglionic explants of latently infected mice with normal kinetics. Thus, any function these transcripts have in the reactivation process appears to include the region between the putative LAT promoter and the disruption in TB1--a region of approximately 1,600 nucleotides, 800 of which encode the LATs.

Animals↗