Terwilliger E F, Cohen E A, Lu Y C, Sodroski J G, Haseltine W A
Department of Human Retrovirology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Jul;86(13):5163-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.13.5163.
To investigate the role of vpu in the replication and cytopathicity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), infectious proviruses were constructed that were isogenic except for the ability to produce the protein product of vpu. The vpu-encoded protein is shown to decrease the rate of syncytium formation and cell killing in infected CD4+ human T cells, to increase greatly the export of virus particles from infected cells, and to reduce the rate of accumulation of cell-associated viral proteins. The vpu protein complements in trans the defect in a vpu- HIV-1 provirus but does not affect the simian immunodeficiency virus, which lacks vpu. These observations suggest that vpu may contribute to the AIDS epidemic by increasing the transmission efficiency of the virus.
为了研究vpu在1型人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV-1）复制和细胞病变中的作用，构建了除产生vpu蛋白产物能力外其余均同基因的感染性前病毒。结果表明，vpu编码蛋白可降低受感染CD4 + 人类T细胞中合胞体形成率和细胞杀伤率，大幅增加病毒颗粒从受感染细胞中的输出，并降低细胞相关病毒蛋白的积累速率。vpu蛋白可反式互补vpu - HIV-1前病毒的缺陷，但不影响缺乏vpu的猴免疫缺陷病毒。这些观察结果表明，vpu可能通过提高病毒的传播效率而助长艾滋病的流行。
