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Reports
The Role of Vpr in the Regulation of HIV-1 Gene Expression
Jianqi Cui, Parithosh K Tungaturthi, Velpandi Ayyavoo, Mohammad Ghafouri, Hiroyoshi Ariga, Kamel Khalili, Alagarsamy Srinivasan, Shohreh Amini and Bassel E Sawaya
volume 5 | issue 22
15 november 2006Pages: 2626 - 2638
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Expression of the viral protein R, Vpr, of HIV-1 affects many biological events in host cells including cell cycle progression, and modulates HIV-1 gene transcription. Earlier studies implicated the cellular protein p21WAF1 (p21) in regulating HIV-1 transcription, which led us to investigate the functional and physical interaction of Vpr and p21. Our results show that Vpr modestly activated HIV-LTR in cells lacking p21 gene. We described the mechanisms of p21 and Vpr interaction for stimulating transcription of HIV-1. Data from the protein-protein interaction experiments revealed the ability of Vpr, p21 and p300 to form a complex. Further, we showed that, Vpr interacted with the N- and the C-terminal domains of p21. Furthermore, in cells expressing Vpr, p21 localizes to both the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Additionally, expression of Vpr alleviates p21-mediated inhibition of cell departure from G1 phase. Expression of a mutant Vpr, with arginine 73 altered to serine, did not affect p21 ability to cause cell arrest or its sub- cellular localization. These observations revealed a new cellular partner for Vpr, and provided a new therapeutic avenue for controlling HIV-1 expression.
Authors
Jianqi Cui
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Parithosh K Tungaturthi
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Velpandi Ayyavoo
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Mohammad Ghafouri
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Hiroyoshi Ariga
Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
Kamel Khalili
Temple University School of Medicine, Department of Biology, Center for Neurovirology and Cancer Biology, Philadelphia, PA
Alagarsamy Srinivasan
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
Shohreh Amini
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Bassel E Sawaya
Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.