RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-07-01DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00644-z
Jenna B Honeycutt, Angela Wahl, Jacob K Files, Alexis F League, Barkha J Yadav-Samudrala, J Victor Garcia, Sylvia Fitting
{"title":"In situ analysis of neuronal injury and neuroinflammation during HIV-1 infection.","authors":"Jenna B Honeycutt, Angela Wahl, Jacob K Files, Alexis F League, Barkha J Yadav-Samudrala, J Victor Garcia, Sylvia Fitting","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00644-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00644-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Since the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) the brain has become an important human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reservoir due to the relatively low penetration of many drugs utilized in cART into the central nervous system (CNS). Given the inherent limitations of directly assessing acute HIV infection in the brains of people living with HIV (PLWH), animal models, such as humanized mouse models, offer the most effective means of studying the effects of different viral strains and their impact on HIV infection in the CNS. To evaluate CNS pathology during HIV-1 infection in the humanized bone marrow/liver/thymus (BLT) mouse model, a histological analysis was conducted on five CNS regions, including the frontal cortex, hippocampus, striatum, cerebellum, and spinal cord, to delineate the neuronal (MAP2ab, NeuN) and neuroinflammatory (GFAP, Iba-1) changes induced by two viral strains after 2 weeks and 8 weeks post-infection.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Findings reveal HIV-infected human cells in the brain of HIV-infected BLT mice, demonstrating HIV neuroinvasion. Further, both viral strains, HIV-1<sub>JR-CSF</sub> and HIV-1<sub>CH040</sub>, induced neuronal injury and astrogliosis across all CNS regions following HIV infection at both time points, as demonstrated by decreases in MAP2ab and increases in GFAP fluorescence signal, respectively. Importantly, infection with HIV-1<sub>JR-CSF</sub> had more prominent effects on neuronal health in specific CNS regions compared to HIV-1<sub>CH040</sub> infection, with decreasing number of NeuN<sup>+</sup> neurons, specifically in the frontal cortex. On the other hand, infection with HIV-1<sub>CH040</sub> demonstrated more prominent effects on neuroinflammation, assessed by an increase in GFAP signal and/or an increase in number of Iba-1<sup>+</sup> microglia, across CNS regions.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These findings demonstrate that CNS pathology is widespread during acute HIV infection. However, neuronal loss and the magnitude of neuroinflammation in the CNS is strain dependent indicating that strains of HIV cause differential CNS pathologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11215835/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141470443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-06-19DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00645-y
Gregory S Lambert, Breanna L Rice, Rebecca J Kaddis Maldonado, Jordan Chang, Leslie J Parent
{"title":"Comparative analysis of retroviral Gag-host cell interactions: focus on the nuclear interactome.","authors":"Gregory S Lambert, Breanna L Rice, Rebecca J Kaddis Maldonado, Jordan Chang, Leslie J Parent","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00645-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00645-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Retroviruses exploit host proteins to assemble and release virions from infected cells. Previously, most studies focused on interacting partners of retroviral Gag proteins that localize to the cytoplasm or plasma membrane. Given that several full-length Gag proteins have been found in the nucleus, identifying the Gag-nuclear interactome has high potential for novel findings involving previously unknown host processes. Here we systematically compared nuclear factors identified in published HIV-1 proteomic studies and performed our own mass spectrometry analysis using affinity-tagged HIV-1 and RSV Gag proteins mixed with nuclear extracts. We identified 57 nuclear proteins in common between HIV-1 and RSV Gag, and a set of nuclear proteins present in our analysis and ≥ 1 of the published HIV-1 datasets. Many proteins were associated with nuclear processes which could have functional consequences for viral replication, including transcription initiation/elongation/termination, RNA processing, splicing, and chromatin remodeling. Examples include facilitating chromatin remodeling to expose the integrated provirus, promoting expression of viral genes, repressing the transcription of antagonistic cellular genes, preventing splicing of viral RNA, altering splicing of cellular RNAs, or influencing viral or host RNA folding or RNA nuclear export. Many proteins in our pulldowns common to RSV and HIV-1 Gag are critical for transcription, including PolR2B, the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII), and LEO1, a PAF1C complex member that regulates transcriptional elongation, supporting the possibility that Gag influences the host transcription profile to aid the virus. Through the interaction of RSV and HIV-1 Gag with splicing-related proteins CBLL1, HNRNPH3, TRA2B, PTBP1 and U2AF1, we speculate that Gag could enhance unspliced viral RNA production for translation and packaging. To validate one putative hit, we demonstrated an interaction of RSV Gag with Mediator complex member Med26, required for RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription. Although 57 host proteins interacted with both Gag proteins, unique host proteins belonging to each interactome dataset were identified. These results provide a strong premise for future functional studies to investigate roles for these nuclear host factors that may have shared functions in the biology of both retroviruses, as well as functions specific to RSV and HIV-1, given their distinctive hosts and molecular pathology.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11186191/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141427479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Retroviral PBS-segment sequence and structure: Orchestrating early and late replication events.","authors":"Xiao Heng, Amanda Paz Herrera, Zhenwei Song, Kathleen Boris-Lawrie","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00646-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00646-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An essential regulatory hub for retroviral replication events, the 5' untranslated region (UTR) encodes an ensemble of cis-acting replication elements that overlap in a logical manner to carry out divergent RNA activities in cells and in virions. The primer binding site (PBS) and primer activation sequence initiate the reverse transcription process in virions, yet overlap with structural elements that regulate expression of the complex viral proteome. PBS-segment also encompasses the attachment site for Integrase to cut and paste the 3' long terminal repeat into the host chromosome to form the provirus and purine residues necessary to execute the precise stoichiometry of genome-length transcripts and spliced viral RNAs. Recent genetic mapping, cofactor affinity experiments, NMR and SAXS have elucidated that the HIV-1 PBS-segment folds into a three-way junction structure. The three-way junction structure is recognized by the host's nuclear RNA helicase A/DHX9 (RHA). RHA tethers host trimethyl guanosine synthase 1 to the Rev/Rev responsive element (RRE)-containing RNAs for m7-guanosine Cap hyper methylation that bolsters virion infectivity significantly. The HIV-1 trimethylated (TMG) Cap licenses specialized translation of virion proteins under conditions that repress translation of the regulatory proteins. Clearly host-adaption and RNA shapeshifting comprise the fundamental basis for PBS-segment orchestrating both reverse transcription of virion RNA and the nuclear modification of m7G-Cap for biphasic translation of the complex viral proteome. These recent observations, which have exposed even greater complexity of retroviral RNA biology than previously established, are the impetus for this article. Basic research to fully comprehend the marriage of PBS-segment structures and host RNA binding proteins that carry out retroviral early and late replication events is likely to expose an immutable virus-specific therapeutic target to attenuate retrovirus proliferation.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"12"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11181671/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141420619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-05-23DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00643-0
Rebecca P Sumner, Henry Blest, Meiyin Lin, Carlos Maluquer de Motes, Greg J Towers
{"title":"HIV-1 with gag processing defects activates cGAS sensing.","authors":"Rebecca P Sumner, Henry Blest, Meiyin Lin, Carlos Maluquer de Motes, Greg J Towers","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00643-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00643-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Detection of viruses by host pattern recognition receptors induces the expression of type I interferon (IFN) and IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs), which suppress viral replication. Numerous studies have described HIV-1 as a poor activator of innate immunity in vitro. The exact role that the viral capsid plays in this immune evasion is not fully understood.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>To better understand the role of the HIV-1 capsid in sensing we tested the effect of making HIV-1 by co-expressing a truncated Gag that encodes the first 107 amino acids of capsid fused with luciferase or GFP, alongside wild type Gag-pol. We found that unlike wild type HIV-1, viral particles produced with a mixture of wild type and truncated Gag fused to luciferase or GFP induced a potent IFN response in THP-1 cells and macrophages. Innate immune activation by Gag-fusion HIV-1 was dependent on reverse transcription and DNA sensor cGAS, suggesting activation of an IFN response by viral DNA. Further investigation revealed incorporation of the Gag-luciferase/GFP fusion proteins into viral particles that correlated with subtle defects in wild type Gag cleavage and a diminished capacity to saturate restriction factor TRIM5α, likely due to aberrant particle formation. We propose that expression of the Gag fusion protein disturbs the correct cleavage and maturation of wild type Gag, yielding viral particles that are unable to effectively shield viral DNA from detection by innate sensors including cGAS.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These data highlight the crucial role of capsid in innate evasion and support growing literature that disruption of Gag cleavage and capsid formation induces a viral DNA- and cGAS-dependent innate immune response. Together these data demonstrate a protective role for capsid and suggest that antiviral activity of capsid-targeting antivirals may benefit from enhanced innate and adaptive immunity in vivo.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11112816/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141080567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-05-02DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00641-2
Alex J. Holloway, Tais B. Saito, Kubra F. Naqvi, Matthew B. Huante, Xiuzhen Fan, Joshua G. Lisinicchia, Benjamin B. Gelman, Janice J. Endsley, Mark A. Endsley
{"title":"Inhibition of caspase pathways limits CD4+ T cell loss and restores host anti-retroviral function in HIV-1 infected humanized mice with augmented lymphoid tissue","authors":"Alex J. Holloway, Tais B. Saito, Kubra F. Naqvi, Matthew B. Huante, Xiuzhen Fan, Joshua G. Lisinicchia, Benjamin B. Gelman, Janice J. Endsley, Mark A. Endsley","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00641-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-024-00641-2","url":null,"abstract":"The study of HIV infection and pathogenicity in physical reservoirs requires a biologically relevant model. The human immune system (HIS) mouse is an established model of HIV infection, but defects in immune tissue reconstitution remain a challenge for examining pathology in tissues. We utilized exogenous injection of the human recombinant FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (rFLT-3 L) into the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) cord blood HIS mouse model to significantly expand the total area of lymph node (LN) and the number of circulating human T cells. The results enabled visualization and quantification of HIV infectivity, CD4 T cell depletion and other measures of pathogenesis in the secondary lymphoid tissues of the spleen and LN. Treatment with the Caspase-1/4 inhibitor VX-765 limited CD4+ T cell loss in the spleen and reduced viral load in both the spleen and axillary LN. In situ hybridization further demonstrated a decrease in viral RNA in both the spleen and LN. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that in vivo inhibition of caspase-1/4 led to an upregulation in host HIV restriction factors including SAMHD1 and APOBEC3A. These findings highlight the use of rFLT-3 L to augment human immune system characteristics in HIS mice to support investigations of HIV pathogenesis and test host directed therapies, though further refinements are needed to further augment LN architecture and cellular populations. The results further provide in vivo evidence of the potential to target inflammasome pathways as an avenue of host-directed therapy to limit immune dysfunction and virus replication in tissue compartments of HIV+ persons.","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140840089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-04-30DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00642-1
Sarah N’Da Konan, Emmanuel Ségéral, Fabienne Bejjani, Maryam Bendoumou, Mélissa Ait Said, Sarah Gallois-Montbrun, Stéphane Emiliani
{"title":"Correction: YTHDC1 regulates distinct post-integration steps of HIV-1 replication and is important for viral infectivity","authors":"Sarah N’Da Konan, Emmanuel Ségéral, Fabienne Bejjani, Maryam Bendoumou, Mélissa Ait Said, Sarah Gallois-Montbrun, Stéphane Emiliani","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00642-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-024-00642-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Following publication of the original article [1], we have been notified that within the Abstract, the word “writer” needs to be replaced with “reader”.</p><p>The original article has been corrected.</p><ol data-track-component=\"outbound reference\"><li data-counter=\"1.\"><p>N’Da Konan et al. Retrovirology. 2022;19:4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-022-00589-1</p></li></ol><p>Download references<svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" height=\"16\" role=\"img\" width=\"16\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-eds-i-download-medium\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\"></use></svg></p><h3>Authors and Affiliations</h3><ol><li><p>Institut Cochin, INSERM, CNRS, Université de Paris, 75014, Paris, France</p><p>Sarah N’Da Konan, Emmanuel Ségéral, Fabienne Bejjani, Mélissa Ait Said, Sarah Gallois-Montbrun & Stéphane Emiliani</p></li><li><p>Ser vice of Molecular Virology, Department of Molecular Biology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 6041, Gosselies, Belgium</p><p>Maryam Bendoumou</p></li></ol><span>Authors</span><ol><li><span>Sarah N’Da Konan</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Emmanuel Ségéral</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Fabienne Bejjani</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Maryam Bendoumou</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Mélissa Ait Said</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Sarah Gallois-Montbrun</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li><li><span>Stéphane Emiliani</span>View author publications<p>You can also search for this author in <span>PubMed<span> </span>Google Scholar</span></p></li></ol><h3>Corresponding authors</h3><p>Correspondence to Sarah Gallois-Montbrun or Stéphane Emiliani.</p><h3>Publisher’s Note</h3><p>Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.</p><p>The online version of the original article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-022-00589-1.</p><p><b>Open Access</b> This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line ","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"106 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140840617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-04-22DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00640-3
Sara Coelho Rangel, Michelly Damasceno da Silva, Décio Gilberto Natrielli Filho, Samuel Nascimento Santos, Jonatas Bussador do Amaral, Jefferson Russo Victor, Kevin Cezar Nascimento Silva, Izabela Dorota Tuleta, Carolina Nunes França, Marina Tiemi Shio, Lucas Melo Neves, André Luis Lacerda Bachi, Luiz Henrique da Silva Nali
{"title":"HERV-W upregulation expression in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: unraveling potential links to systemic immune/inflammation status","authors":"Sara Coelho Rangel, Michelly Damasceno da Silva, Décio Gilberto Natrielli Filho, Samuel Nascimento Santos, Jonatas Bussador do Amaral, Jefferson Russo Victor, Kevin Cezar Nascimento Silva, Izabela Dorota Tuleta, Carolina Nunes França, Marina Tiemi Shio, Lucas Melo Neves, André Luis Lacerda Bachi, Luiz Henrique da Silva Nali","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00640-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-024-00640-3","url":null,"abstract":"Bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are the two main mental disorders with unknown etiology that significantly impact individuals’ quality of life. The potential pro-inflammatory role in their pathogenesis is postulated and Human Endogenous Retrovirus W (HERV-W) is an emerging candidate to modulate this pathogenic finding. HERVs, ancient retroviruses in the human genome, may play roles in inflammation and disease pathogenesis. Despite HERVs’ involvement in autoimmune diseases, their influence on mental disorders remains underexplored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the level of HERV-W-env expression and the systemic inflammatory profile through the concentration of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α and INF-γ cytokines in BD and SZ patients. All participants showed HERV-W-env expression, but its expression was higher in mental disorder patients (p < 0.01) than in control. When separated, SZ individuals exhibited higher HERV-W expression than the control group (p < 0.01). Higher serum levels of TNF-α and IL-10 were found in BD (p = 0.0001 and p = 0.001, respectively) and SZ (p = 0.01) and p = 0.01, respectively) than in the control group, while SZ showed decreased levels IFN-γ and IL-2 as compared to controls (p = 0.05) and BD patients (p = 0.05), respectively. Higher TNF-α/IL-4 and TNF-α/IL-10 ratios, and lower IFN-γ/IL-10 were observed in BD and SZ patients than controls. Significant negative correlation between HERV-W-env expression and IL-10 (r=-0.47 p < 0.05), as well as positive correlations between HERV-W-env expression and TNF-α/IL-10 or IFN-γ/IL-10 ratios (r = 0.48 p < 0.05 and r = 0.46 p < 0.05, respectively) were found in BD patients. These findings suggest not only a potential link between HERV-W-env expression both in BD and SZ, but also a possible involvement of systemic inflammatory status in BD patients.","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140636431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-04-05DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00639-w
Uri Mbonye, Jonathan Karn
{"title":"The cell biology of HIV-1 latency and rebound","authors":"Uri Mbonye, Jonathan Karn","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00639-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12977-024-00639-w","url":null,"abstract":"Transcriptionally latent forms of replication-competent proviruses, present primarily in a small subset of memory CD4+ T cells, pose the primary barrier to a cure for HIV-1 infection because they are the source of the viral rebound that almost inevitably follows the interruption of antiretroviral therapy. Over the last 30 years, many of the factors essential for initiating HIV-1 transcription have been identified in studies performed using transformed cell lines, such as the Jurkat T-cell model. However, as highlighted in this review, several poorly understood mechanisms still need to be elucidated, including the molecular basis for promoter-proximal pausing of the transcribing complex and the detailed mechanism of the delivery of P-TEFb from 7SK snRNP. Furthermore, the central paradox of HIV-1 transcription remains unsolved: how are the initial rounds of transcription achieved in the absence of Tat? A critical limitation of the transformed cell models is that they do not recapitulate the transitions between active effector cells and quiescent memory T cells. Therefore, investigation of the molecular mechanisms of HIV-1 latency reversal and LRA efficacy in a proper physiological context requires the utilization of primary cell models. Recent mechanistic studies of HIV-1 transcription using latently infected cells recovered from donors and ex vivo cellular models of viral latency have demonstrated that the primary blocks to HIV-1 transcription in memory CD4+ T cells are restrictive epigenetic features at the proviral promoter, the cytoplasmic sequestration of key transcription initiation factors such as NFAT and NF-κB, and the vanishingly low expression of the cellular transcription elongation factor P-TEFb. One of the foremost schemes to eliminate the residual reservoir is to deliberately reactivate latent HIV-1 proviruses to enable clearance of persisting latently infected cells—the “Shock and Kill” strategy. For “Shock and Kill” to become efficient, effective, non-toxic latency-reversing agents (LRAs) must be discovered. Since multiple restrictions limit viral reactivation in primary cells, understanding the T-cell signaling mechanisms that are essential for stimulating P-TEFb biogenesis, initiation factor activation, and reversing the proviral epigenetic restrictions have become a prerequisite for the development of more effective LRAs.","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140576218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
RetrovirologyPub Date : 2024-02-29DOI: 10.1186/s12977-024-00637-y
Sergio P Alpuche-Lazcano, Robert J Scarborough, Anne Gatignol
{"title":"MicroRNAs and long non-coding RNAs during transcriptional regulation and latency of HIV and HTLV.","authors":"Sergio P Alpuche-Lazcano, Robert J Scarborough, Anne Gatignol","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00637-y","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00637-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T cell leukemia virus (HTLV) have replicative and latent stages of infection. The status of the viruses is dependent on the cells that harbour them and on different events that change the transcriptional and post-transcriptional events. Non-coding (nc)RNAs are key factors in the regulation of retrovirus replication cycles. Notably, micro (mi)RNAs and long non-coding (lnc)RNAs are important regulators that can induce switches between active transcription-replication and latency of retroviruses and have important impacts on their pathogenesis. Here, we review the functions of miRNAs and lncRNAs in the context of HIV and HTLV. We describe how specific miRNAs and lncRNAs are involved in the regulation of the viruses' transcription, post-transcriptional regulation and latency. We further discuss treatment strategies using ncRNAs for HIV and HTLV long remission, reactivation or possible cure.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10905857/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139997323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"HERVK-mediated regulation of neighboring genes: implications for breast cancer prognosis.","authors":"Boying Liang, Tengyue Yan, Huilin Wei, Die Zhang, Lanxiang Li, Zengjing Liu, Wen Li, Yuluan Zhang, Nili Jiang, Qiuxia Meng, Guiyang Jiang, Yanling Hu, Jing Leng","doi":"10.1186/s12977-024-00636-z","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12977-024-00636-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are the remnants of ancient retroviral infections integrated into the human genome. Although most HERVs are silenced or rendered inactive by various regulatory mechanisms, they retain the potential to influence the nearby genes. We analyzed the regulatory map of 91 HERV-Ks on neighboring genes in human breast cancer and investigated the impact of HERV-Ks on the tumor microenvironment (TME) and prognosis of breast cancer. Nine RNA-seq datasets were obtained from GEO and NCBI SRA. Differentially expressed genes and HERV-Ks were analyzed using DESeq2. Validation of high-risk prognostic candidate genes using TCGA data. These included Overall survival (multivariate Cox regression model), immune infiltration analysis (TIMER), tumor mutation burden (maftools), and drug sensitivity analysis (GSCA). A total of 88 candidate genes related to breast cancer prognosis were screened, of which CD48, SLAMF7, SLAMF1, IGLL1, IGHA1, and LRRC8A were key genes. Functionally, these six key genes were significantly enriched in some immune function-related pathways, which may be associated with poor prognosis for breast cancer (p = 0.00016), and the expression levels of these genes were significantly correlated with the sensitivity of breast cancer treatment-related drugs. Mechanistically, they may influence breast cancer development by modulating the infiltration of various immune cells into the TME. We further experimentally validated these genes to confirm the results obtained from bioinformatics analysis. This study represents the first report on the regulatory potential of HERV-K in the neighboring breast cancer genome. We identified three key HERV-Ks and five neighboring genes that hold promise as novel targets for future interventions and treatments for breast cancer.</p>","PeriodicalId":21123,"journal":{"name":"Retrovirology","volume":"21 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10885364/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139935141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}