The large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (RR1) encoded by Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and 2 (ICP6 and ICP10, respectively) is a chimeric protein consisting of a Ser/Threonine protein kinase (PK) domain at the amino terminus and a ribonucleotide reductase (RR) domain at the carboxy terminus. The findings that the PK domain is present only in HSV RR1 proteins, it is dispensable for ribonucleotide reduction and it functions as immediate-early (IE) protein during HSV infection, suggest that the PK activity plays a significant role in virus pathogenesis. The present work was initiated to confirm the intrinsic nature of ICP10 PK activity and to elucidate its role in HSV-2 infection. In stably transfected eukaryotic cells, ICP10 PK activity was eliminated by deletion of the conserved PK catalytic motifs or of the transmembrane (TM) segment and it was significantly impaired by mutation of the invariant Lys (Lys{dollar}\sp{lcub}176{rcub}{dollar}). Loss of PK activity by Lys{dollar}\sp{lcub}176{rcub}{dollar} mutation resulted in the failure to bind ATP. A truncated ICP10 PK expressed in bacteria (pp29{dollar}\rm\sp{lcub}la1{rcub}{dollar}) retained auto- and transphosphorylating activity (for calmodulin) after purification to apparent homogeneity. In cells infected with laboratory and patient isolates of HSV, RR1 had auto- and transphosphorylating activity for the small subunit of HSV ribonucleotide reductase (RR2) and Immunoglobulin G (IgG). Two HSV-2 (G) mutants deleted in the protein kinase or ribonucleotide reductase domains of ICP10 (ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}PK and ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}RR, respectively) were constructed by marker transfer. ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}PK virus lost its intrinsic PK activity but retained its RR activity; ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}RR virus retained its PK activity but lost its RR activity. ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}PK virus does not replicate during the first 10 hrs postinfection (p.i.). However, its titers catch up with those of the wild type virus by 24 hrs p.i.; ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}RR virus replicates as well as the wild type virus in exponentially growing cells but it is significantly impaired for growth in growth-restricted cells. HSV-2 and ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}RR virus produce similar clear plaques but ICP10{dollar}\Delta{dollar}PK virus produces hazy plaques, which under magnification consist of a mixture of lysed and unlysed cells. The studies suggest that (i) ICP10 has intrinsic auto- and transphosphorylating PK activity, (ii) ICP10 PK and RR are functionally dissociable in virus infected cells, (iii) ICP10 PK is required for virus replication during the first 10 hrs p.i. and (iv) ICP10 PK may be involved in cell death in virus infected cells.

The Chinese hamster lung cell line DC-3F8/A55 has a 4,500-fold increase in resistance to methotrexate over the parental cell line DC-3F. Although DC- 3F8/A55 cells have a 4.5-fold increase in a mutant form of dihydrofolate reductase, this does not fully account for the high level of resistance to methotrexate. The purpose of this study is to determine the molecular basis for the inability of DC-3F8/A55 cells to accumulate methotrexate, and to identify the mechanism of transport of folate compounds in DC-3F8/A55 cells. This work has revealed that DC-3F8/A55 cells harbor a debilitating mutation to the reduced folate carrier gene, resulting in the loss of reduced folate carrier function. A nonsense mutation changes an arginine at amino acid 88 to a STOP codon, resulting in a non-functional protein. The parental cell line DC-3F is heterozygous at this locus, possessing one mutant and one wild-type allele of the RFC gene, thus retaining reduced folate carrier activity. These facts are supported by the kinetics of folate transport in both of these cell lines. The parental cell line DC-3F has a Kt for folinic acid of 10.69 +/- 0.67 muM and for methotrexate of 8.88 +/- 0.82 muM, values characteristic of a cell expressing a reduced folate carrier. DC-3F8/A55 cells were found to have a Kd for MTX of 3.16 +/- 1.03 nM, for folinic acid of 7.75 +/- 2.16 nM, and for folic acid of 1.42 +/- 0.54 nM. The high affinity of DC-3F8/A55 cells for folic acid, with a Kd for folic acid in the nM range, suggests that these cells are expressing a folate receptor. Northern blot analysis revealed a 1.6 kb transcript with low homology to FR-alpha and FR-gamma in DC-3F8/A55 cells. Overall, these studies suggest that the methotrexate transport-defective cell line DC-3F8/A55 expresses a previously unidentified folate receptor which may be a new member of the folate receptor family.

The large subunit of Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2) ribonucleotide reductase (ICP10) is a chimera protein consisting of a serine/threonine protein kinase (PK) domain at the amino-terminus and a ribonucleotide reductase (RR) domain at the carboxyl-terminus. Like growth factor receptor PKs, ICP10 is myristylated, it has features of a signal peptide and putative transmembrane (TM) segment, and its PK activity is modulated by basic proteins and by antibodies to amino acid residues upstream of the TM. To further characterize this PK domain, we constructed a bacterial expression vector (pJL11) containing DNA sequences encoding ICP10 amino acid residues 1-445. Bacteria containing pJL11 were induced to express a 29 KDa protein (designated pp29{dollar}\sp{lcub}\rm la1{rcub}){dollar} that represents a truncated portion of the ICP10 PK domain as demonstrated by immunoprecipitation with antibodies that recognize different antigenic domains, competition studies with extracts of ICP10 positive eukaryotic cells, and peptide mapping. pp29{dollar}\sp{lcub}\rm la1{rcub}{dollar} has autophosphorylating and transphosphorylating activity for calmodulin. The enzyme is activated by Mn{dollar}\sp{lcub}2+{rcub}{dollar} but not by Mg{dollar}\sp{lcub}\rm 2+{rcub}{dollar} ions, and autophosphorylation is inhibited by histone. It differs from the authentic ICP10-PK in that phosphorylation is specific only for threonine. To determine the significance of ICP10 PK catalytic motifs, site-directed and deletion mutants in PK motifs I and II, the putative signal peptide and the TM segment were used to determine the role of these elements in ICP10-PK activity. PK activity was lost by deletion of the putative TM segment (amino acid residues 85-106). However, mutation of the central Gly in PK catalytic motif I (Gly{dollar}\sp{lcub}106{rcub}{dollar}) or of the invariant Lys in PK catalytic motif II (Lys{dollar}\sp{lcub}176{rcub}{dollar}) or deletion of both of these catalytic motifs (amino acid residues 106-178) did not abolish the kinase activity as determined both in auto- and transphosphorylation assays. PK activity of the mutant deleted in domains I and II was 4-fold lower than that of the wild type ICP10 and it was insensitive to Mn{dollar}\sp{lcub}2+{rcub}{dollar}, suggesting that these motifs are involved in Mn{dollar}\sp{lcub}2+{rcub}{dollar} activation of kinase activity. The result of immunoblotting demonstrated that ICP10 complexes with GTPase activating protein (GAP). Ras GTPase activity is significantly inhibited in ICP10 transformed (JHLa1) cells. These results suggested that ICP10 may constitutively activate ras activity by blocking its down-regulation process, implying a potential signal transduction mechanism for ICP10 induced transformation.