Immune evasion activities of accessory proteins Vpu, Nef and Vif are conserved in acute and chronic HIV-1 infection.

Abstract

Heterosexual HIV-1 transmission has been identified as a genetic bottleneck and a single transmitted/founder (T/F) variant with reduced sensitivity to type I interferon initiates productive infection in most cases. We hypothesized that particularly active accessory protein(s) may confer T/F viruses with a selective advantage in establishing HIV infection. Thus, we tested vpu, vif and nef alleles from six T/F and six chronic (CC) viruses in assays for 9 immune evasion activities involving the counteraction of interferon-stimulated genes and modulation of ligands known to activate innate immune cells. All functions were highly conserved with no significant differences between T/F and CC viruses, suggesting that these accessory protein functions are important throughout the course of infection.

• Authors: Petra Mlcochova, Luis Apolonia, Silvia F Kluge, Aishwarya Sridharan, Frank Kirchhoff, Michael H Malim, Daniel Sauter, Ravindra K Gupta
• Journal: Virology (Virology) Vol. 482 Pg. 72-8 (Aug 2015) ISSN: 1096-0341 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 25827531 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Human Immunodeficiency Virus Proteins
• Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
• nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• nef protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1
• vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• vif protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1
• vpu protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1

Topics

• Cell Line
• Female
• HIV Infections (immunology, virology)
• HIV-1 (immunology, isolation & purification, physiology)
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus Proteins (metabolism)
• Humans
• Immune Evasion
• Male
• Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins (metabolism)
• Virus Replication
• nef Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (metabolism)
• vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (metabolism)