These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Controlling cellular P-TEFb activity by the HIV-1 transcriptional transactivator Tat.
    Author: Muniz L, Egloff S, Ughy B, Jády BE, Kiss T.
    Journal: PLoS Pathog; 2010 Oct 14; 6(10):e1001152. PubMed ID: 20976203.
    Abstract:
    The human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) transcriptional transactivator (Tat) is essential for synthesis of full-length transcripts from the integrated viral genome by RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Tat recruits the host positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) to the HIV-1 promoter through binding to the transactivator RNA (TAR) at the 5'-end of the nascent HIV transcript. P-TEFb is a general Pol II transcription factor; its cellular activity is controlled by the 7SK small nuclear RNA (snRNA) and the HEXIM1 protein, which sequester P-TEFb into transcriptionally inactive 7SK/HEXIM/P-TEFb snRNP. Besides targeting P-TEFb to HIV transcription, Tat also increases the nuclear level of active P-TEFb through promoting its dissociation from the 7SK/HEXIM/P-TEFb RNP by an unclear mechanism. In this study, by using in vitro and in vivo RNA-protein binding assays, we demonstrate that HIV-1 Tat binds with high specificity and efficiency to an evolutionarily highly conserved stem-bulge-stem motif of the 5'-hairpin of human 7SK snRNA. The newly discovered Tat-binding motif of 7SK is structurally and functionally indistinguishable from the extensively characterized Tat-binding site of HIV TAR and importantly, it is imbedded in the HEXIM-binding elements of 7SK snRNA. We show that Tat efficiently replaces HEXIM1 on the 7SK snRNA in vivo and therefore, it promotes the disassembly of the 7SK/HEXIM/P-TEFb negative transcriptional regulatory snRNP to augment the nuclear level of active P-TEFb. This is the first demonstration that HIV-1 specifically targets an important cellular regulatory RNA, most probably to promote viral transcription and replication. Demonstration that the human 7SK snRNA carries a TAR RNA-like Tat-binding element that is essential for the normal transcriptional regulatory function of 7SK questions the viability of HIV therapeutic approaches based on small drugs blocking the Tat-binding site of HIV TAR.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]