Masuda Michiaki
Department of Microbiology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Shimotsuga-gun, Tochigi-pref. 321-0293.
Rinsho Byori. 2005 Oct;53(10):950-6.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and a member of Retrovirus family. The name of "retrovirus" is said to be derived from "reverse-transcribing oncogenic virus." Living up to its name, retrovirus has contributed to oncology, especially in the field of cancer pathogenesis. Retrovirus research has led to discovery of a number of oncogenes as well. Since the discovery of HIV in 1983, however, retrovirus has also been considered as an important etiologic agent that could incapacitate the cells involved in immune responses. As of the end of 2004, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is estimated to be as large as 40 million. Every year, nearly 5 million people are newly infected with HIV, and 3 million people die of AIDS in the world, mainly in Africa and southeastern and southern Asia. Despite extensive studies, detailed mechanisms of HIV pathogenesis are still unclear, and efforts are being made to clarify functions of various HIV proteins and identify the cellular factors that could interact with the HIV proteins. One of the HIV accessory proteins, Vpr, causes the host cell cycle arrest at G2 phase, which may play an important pathogenic role in AIDS induction. Exploiting the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe useful for cell cycle studies, I've been trying to elucidate the mechanism by which Vpr induces the G2 arrest as presented in this review.
人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）是获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）的病原体，属于逆转录病毒科。“逆转录病毒”这个名称据说来源于“逆转录致癌病毒”。名副其实，逆转录病毒在肿瘤学领域，尤其是在癌症发病机制方面发挥了作用。逆转录病毒研究也促成了许多癌基因的发现。然而，自1983年发现HIV以来，逆转录病毒也被视为一种重要的病原体，它能够使参与免疫反应的细胞丧失功能。截至2004年底，估计感染HIV/AIDS的人数多达4000万。在全球，每年有近500万人新感染HIV，300万人死于艾滋病，主要集中在非洲以及亚洲东南部和南部。尽管进行了广泛研究，但HIV发病机制的详细情况仍不清楚，人们正在努力阐明各种HIV蛋白的功能，并确定可能与HIV蛋白相互作用的细胞因子。HIV辅助蛋白之一Vpr会使宿主细胞周期停滞在G2期，这可能在AIDS诱导过程中发挥重要的致病作用。利用对细胞周期研究有用的裂殖酵母粟酒裂殖酵母，我一直在尝试阐明Vpr诱导G2期停滞的机制，本文对此进行综述。
