Cytokine-mediated induction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) expression and cell death in chronically infected U1 cells: do tumor necrosis factor alpha and gamma interferon selectively kill HIV-infected cells?

Infection with several DNA or RNA viruses induces a state of increased sensitivity to cell lysis mediated by tumor necrosis factor (TNF), particularly in the presence of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma). Infection of human cells with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may induce a similar phenomenon. However, TNF and IFN-gamma are known upregulators of HIV replication, raising the question of the potential role of these cytokines in the selective elimination of cells infected with this virus. The present study demonstrates that chronically infected U1 cells were killed with much greater efficiency by costimulation with TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma than their uninfected parental cell line U937. However, synergistic induction of viral expression also occurred in U1 cells as a consequence of treatment with the two cytokines. Cell death in U1 cells was not caused by the massive production of virions, in that costimulation with glucocorticoid hormones and TNF-alpha or IFN-gamma resulted in high levels of virion production without cytopathicity. To investigate the nature of the selective cytotoxic effect observed in U1 cells costimulated with TNF-alpha plus IFN-gamma, a panel of uninfected cell clones was generated by limiting dilution of U937 cells and tested for response to TNF-alpha and/or IFN-gamma. In contrast to the uncloned bulk parental U937 cell line, most uninfected cell clones showed a very high susceptibility to being killed by TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma. Similar findings were obtained when both infected U1 cells and several uninfected U937 cell clones were costimulated with an anti-Fas monoclonal antibody in the presence of IFN-gamma, although, unlike cells stimulated with TNF-alpha, cells treated with anti-Fas antibody did not express virus. Therefore, the increased susceptibility to cytokine-mediated lysis observed in cell lines infected with HIV is likely due to the selection of preexisting cell clones rather than viral infection.