title: Stimulation of the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) gene expression by the cytomegalovirus and HIV-2 transactivator gene.
abstract: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) often causes latent infection. Transactivation by some DNA viruses has been implicated in inducing HIV-1 replication and pathogenesis. The transactivator (IE-2) gene of the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) can enhance HIV-2 as well as HIV-1 gene expression in vitro. This inducer can act in concert with the HIV-2 tat gene and T-cell activation in enhancing gene expression in human CD4+ lymphocytes. While the HIV-2 and HIV-1 tat genes and T-cell activators apparently employ independent modes of action, the CMV transactivator in combination with the HIV-2 tat or T-cell activators may employ a gene activation pathway with some common and some distinct components. Both HIV-2 and CMV transactivators enhance HIV-2 gene expression by transcriptional activation involving transcript initiation as well as elongation, with CMV transactivator affecting elongation more than the initiation. A significant proportion of transcripts appear to terminate prematurely in the absence of transactivators. Deletion mutation analysis of the HIV-2 long terminal repeat (LTR) suggests that the element that responds to CMV transactivation in human CD4+ lymphocytes is either a diffuse one or located downstream of the HIV-2 enhancer element.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Arya
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sethi
mesh_terms: D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000502:physiology*; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D005814:Genes, Viral; D015756:Genes, tat; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D009154:Mutation; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D015534:Trans-Activators