Functional variability of Nef in antagonizing SERINC5 during acute to chronic HIV-1 infection

Objective: The ability of HIV-1 Nef to counteract the host restriction factor SERINC5 and enhance virion infectivity has been well-established. However, the impact of long term within-host Nef evolution on this antagonistic capability remains unclear. Design: Analysis of longitudinal activity of Nef in antagonizing SERINC5. Methods: We investigated the downregulation activity of Nef against SERINC5 at different stages of infection by analyzing the cognate transmitted/founder, set point, and/or chronic Nef isolates from a cohort of 19 subjects living with either subtype B or C HIV-1. Results: The Nef isolates from different stages exhibited varying abilities to antagonize SERINC5. Long-term evolution resulted in mutations accumulated in Nef and a decline of Nef-mediated SERINC5 downregulation function in subtype B, but not in subtype C viruses, leading to a rapid reduction in viral load from peak viremia. Furthermore, we identified four polymorphisms of both subtype B and C Nef that are associated with variations in the SERINC5 antagonistic function and viral infectivity. HIV-1 NL4–3 variants encoding Nef E63G, A83G, R105K, or D108E mutants exhibited reduced replication capacity through a SERINC5-dependent mechanism. However, among different subjects, only a small part of naturally occurring mutations at these sites were selected by host T cell responses, suggesting a limited impact of host T cell responses on influencing Nef's ability to antagonize SERINC5. Conclusion: These results highlight the potential contribution of functional variation in Nef to differences in HIV-1 pathogenesis and provide significant implications for understanding the evolutionary interaction between Nef and SERINC5 in vivo .