Proteasomes are intracellular structures responsible for protein degradation. The 20S proteasome is a core catalytic element of the proteasome assembly. Variations of catalytic subunits generate different forms of 20S proteasomes including immunoproteasomes (iPs), which are present mostly in the immune cells. Certain cells of the immune system are primary targets of retroviruses. It has been shown that several viral proteins directly affect proteasome functionality, while inhibition of proteasome activity with broad specificity proteasome inhibitors stimulates viral transduction. Here we specifically addressed the role of the immunoproteasomes during early stages of viral transduction and investigated the effects of specific immunoproteasome inhibition and activation prior to infection using a panel of cell lines. Inhibition of iPs in hematopoietic cells with immunoproteasome-specific inhibitor ONX-0914 resulted in increased infection by VSV-G pseudotyped lentiviruses. Moreover, a tendency for increased infection of cloned cells with endogenously decreased proteasome activity was revealed. Conversely, activation of iPs by IFN-γ markedly reduced the viral infectivity, which was rescued upon simultaneous immunoproteasome inhibition. Our results indicate that immunoproteasome activity might be determinative for the cellular antiretroviral resistance at least for the cells with high iP content. Finally, therapeutic application of immunoproteasome inhibitors might promote retroviral infection of cells in vivo.
Keywords: HIV-1; ONX-0914; cells; immunoproteasome; proteasome; proteasome inhibitor; retrovirus; viral infection.