Inefficient Enhancement of Viral Infectivity and CD4 Downregulation byHuman Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Nef from Japanese Long-Term Nonprogressors
AIDS first appeared at the beginning of the 1980s. It is now a pandemic affecting the entire Earth. The disease is caused by a virus, called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). An important gene of HIV-1 is a gene called Nef. Although Nef is not needed for replication it has among other functions the ability to downregulate the expression of CD4 receptors and to make virions more infectious. The group of researches on which paper I am going to make my presentation were particularly interested in knowing if defective Nef was associated with the pattern of long-term nonprogression.
To test their hypothesis they used Nef genes from different categories of patients. They subcloned the alleles and inserted them into nef-defective infectious HIV-1 molecular clones and an expression vector. They were able at the end of their study to show that there is reduced infectivity of virions and reduced downregulation of CD4 receptors from HIV-1 nef belonging to long-term nonprogressors. The ultimate goal of this research is to open the door for a vaccine using the basic mechanisms behind nef alleles from non-progressors and to find new antiretroviral drugs.
Tags: biology, francis wodie, Indiana State University, wodie
