Human cytomegalovirus protein pp65 mediates accumulation of HLA-DR in lysosomes and destruction of the HLA-DR alpha-chain.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has developed multiple strategies to escape immune recognition. Here, we demonstrate that HCMV down-regulates HLA-DR expression in infected interferon gamma (IFN-gamma)-stimulated fibroblasts at 1 day after infection. Decreased HLA-DR expression was not observed on cells infected with an HCMV strain lacking the pp65 gene (RVAD65), but was observed on cells transfected with the pp65 gene. HLA-DR expression accumulated in vacuoles near the nucleus in HCMV-infected, but not in uninfected or RVAD65-infected cells. In addition, the HLA-DR alpha-chain, but not the beta-chain or HLA-DM, was degraded in HCMV-infected but not in RVAD65-infected cells. Thus, the HCMV protein pp65 mediates decreased expression of HLA-DR, by mediating an accumulation of HLA class II molecules in lysosomes that results in degradation of the HLA-DR alpha-chain.