National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, George Mason University, Manassas, USA.
Laboratory of Molecular Virology, George Mason University, Manassas, USA.
Virology. 2018 May;518:241-252. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2018.03.006. Epub 2018 Mar 15.
In HIV infected macrophages, a large population of viral genomes persists as the unintegrated form (uDNA) that is transcriptionally active. However, how this transcriptional activity is controlled remains unclear. In this report, we investigated whether Tat, the viral transactivator of transcription, is involved in uDNA transcription. We demonstrate that de novo Tat activity is generated from uDNA, and this uDNA-derived Tat (uTat) transactivates the uDNA LTR. In addition, uTat is required for the transcriptional persistence of uDNA that is assembled into repressive episomal minichromatin. In the absence of uTat, uDNA minichromatin is gradually silenced, but remains highly inducible by HDAC inhibitors (HDACi). Therefore, functionally, uTat antagonizes uDNA minichromatin repression to maintain persistent viral transcription in macrophages. uTat-mediated viral persistence may establish a viral reservoir in macrophages where uDNA were found to persist.
在 HIV 感染的巨噬细胞中,大量的病毒基因组以未整合的形式(uDNA)持续存在,且具有转录活性。然而,这种转录活性是如何被调控的尚不清楚。在本报告中,我们研究了 HIV 转录激活因子 Tat 是否参与 uDNA 的转录。我们发现 uDNA 可以产生新的 Tat 活性,并且这种 uDNA 衍生的 Tat(uTat)可以激活 uDNA LTR 的转录。此外,uTat 对于组装成具有抑制性的游离 episomal 微小染色体的 uDNA 的转录持续性是必需的。在没有 uTat 的情况下,uDNA 微小染色体逐渐沉默,但仍可被组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂(HDACi)高度诱导。因此,从功能上讲,uTat 拮抗 uDNA 微小染色体的抑制作用,以维持巨噬细胞中持续的病毒转录。uTat 介导的病毒持续性可能在巨噬细胞中建立一个病毒储存库,因为在巨噬细胞中发现 uDNA 持续存在。