Cells nonproductively infected with HIV-1 exhibit an aberrant pattern of viral RNA expression: a molecular model for latency.
U1 and ACH-2 cells are subclones of HIV-1-infected monocyte/macrophage-like and T lymphocyte cell lines, respectively, which express the HIV-1 genome at very low levels. We have examined whether they might provide a model of HIV-1 latency. The patterns of HIV-1-specific RNA expressed in these cells consisted of singly and multiply spliced RNA species, with little or no full-length genomic RNA. Upon stimulation with agents that activate the HIV-1 long terminal repeat in these cells, a marked rise in the amount of small mRNAs, encoding the viral regulatory proteins, preceded the increase in the unspliced RNA. Thus, U1 and ACH-2 cells maintain HIV-1 in a state equivalent to the early phase of a lytic infection and, after stimulation, recapitulate the events of a single cycle infection of highly susceptible target cells.
Pomerantz
R J
RJ
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142.
Trono
D
D
Feinberg
M B
MB
Baltimore
D
D
D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002460:Cell Line; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral / Q000187:drug effects; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages; D009000:Monocytes; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000494:pharmacology; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013755:Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate / Q000494:pharmacology
D010835:Phytohemagglutinins; D012367:RNA, Viral; D013755:Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate