Characterization of multiple molecular interactions between human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).

In transient gene expression assays we observed an increase in expression of the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyl-transferase (CAT) gene, under the transcriptional control of the HIV-1 LTR (pLTR-CAT), when this plasmid was cotransfected into Vero or MRC-5 cells with a plasmid containing either the HCMV immediate early 1 and 2 (E1, IE2) genes (pRL43a) or just the IE2 gene (pMP18). When the HCMV IE1 gene (pMP12) was cotransfected with pLTR-CAT into Vero cells the level of measurable CAT gene activity was below the level observed when pLTR-CAT was cotransfected with a nonspecific carrier plasmid (pGEM3). The negative influence of the HCMV IE1 gene product on the HIV-1 LTR in Vero cells was also observed when the HIV-1 tat gene (pLTR-TAT) was contransfected into Vero cells with pLTR-CAT and pMP12. However, when the HCMV IE1 gene was cotransfected into rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells with proviral HIV-1 DNA, an increase in viral production, as monitored by measurement of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity, was observed. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, nuclear extracts obtained 15 hr post-HCMV infection (hpi) were found to contain a lower level of interaction with an oligonucleotide which corresponded to the HIV-1 LTR Sp-1 binding motif. Nuclear extracts obtained 40 hpi of MRC-5 cells had a greater level of interaction with, and changed the mobility of, the Sp-1 oligonucleotide relative to the uninfected nuclear extracts. HCMV-infected MRC-5 cell nuclear extracts also contain a factor(s) which interacted with the HIV-1 LTR between nucleotide positions -15 to -2 relative to the HIV-1 mRNA start site.