HIV Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about HIV, including details on human immunodeficiency virus, testing, treatment, prevention, vaccines, aids.

The role of upstream U3 sequences in HIV-1 replication and CD4+ T cell depletion in human lymphoid tissue ex vivo.

Münch J, Rajan D, Rücker E, Wildum S, Adam N, Kirchhoff F

Department of Virology, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany.

The LTRs of all primate lentiviruses contain long U3 regions overlapping the nef gene. To assess the relevance of the modulatory U3 region for HIV-1 replication, we inactivated the T-rich region, the Polypurine tract and attachment (att) sequences in nef by silent mutations and inserted intact cis-regulatory elements just upstream of the core enhancer. These modifications severely truncated the U3 region and eliminated the nef overlap. The resulting HIV-1 mutants expressed functional Nef, replicated efficiently and caused CD4+ T cell depletion in ex vivo-infected lymphoid tissue suggesting that the modulatory U3 region might not be essential for efficient HIV-1 gene expression and AIDS pathogenesis.

Published 11 October 2005 in Virology, 341(2): 313-20.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 HIV Research Today. All Rights Reserved.