Open AccessHuman herpesvirus 6A promotes glycolysis in infected T cells by activation of mTOR signaling
Author(s) -
Zhisheng Wu,
Junli Jia,
Xianyi Xu,
Mengyuan Xu,
Guangyong Peng,
Jingjing Ma,
Xuefeng Jiang,
Jialin Yao,
Kun Yao,
Lingyun Li,
Huiping Tang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos pathogens
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.719
H-Index - 206
eISSN - 1553-7374
pISSN - 1553-7366
DOI - 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008568
Subject(s) - glycolysis , mtorc1 , pi3k/akt/mtor pathway , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , carbohydrate metabolism , metabolism , metabolic pathway , glucose transporter , glucose uptake , protein kinase b , signal transduction , biochemistry , endocrinology , insulin
Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) is an important immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory virus worldwide. However, whether and how HHV-6 infection influences the metabolic machinery of the host cell to provide the energy and biosynthetic resources for virus propagation remains unknown. In this study, we identified that HHV-6A infection promotes glucose metabolism in infected T cells, resulting in elevated glycolytic activity with an increase of glucose uptake, glucose consumption and lactate secretion. Furthermore, we explored the mechanisms involved in HHV-6A-mediated glycolytic activation in the infected T cells. We found increased expressions of the key glucose transporters and glycolytic enzymes in HHV-6A-infected T cells. In addition, HHV-6A infection dramatically activated AKT-mTORC1 signaling in the infected T cells and pharmacological inhibition of mTORC1 blocked HHV-6A-mediated glycolytic activation. We also found that direct inhibition of glycolysis by 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) or inhibition of mTORC1 activity in HHV-6A-infected T cells effectively reduced HHV-6 DNA replication, protein synthesis and virion production. These results not only reveal the mechanism of how HHV-6 infection affects host cell metabolism, but also suggest that targeting the metabolic pathway could be a new avenue for HHV-6 therapy.