title: Inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 by retroviral vectors expressing antisense-TAR.
abstract: The human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) Tat activation response (TAR) region is essential for Tat-mediated trans-activation of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR). The TAR element is present on the 5' and 3' ends of all HIV-1 transcripts and is relatively conserved among different HIV-1 isolates. These properties make it an attractive target for anti-HIV-1 gene therapy strategies. We have constructed a Moloney murine leukemia-based retroviral vector that expresses a chimeric tRNA(iMet)-antisense TAR fusion transcript complementary to the HIV-1 TAR region. The potential of this anti-TAR retroviral vector to inhibit HIV-1 was initially tested by transient transfections with an HIV-1-LTR-Tat expression plasmid into HeLa-CAT cells. Anti-TAR inhibited Tat-mediated HIV-1 LTR-driven CAT reporter gene expression in a dose-dependent fashion. The antisense-TAR vector was then used to transduce the human SupT1 T cell line. Cotransfection of these SupT1 cells with a Tat expression plasmid plus an HIV-1 LTR-CAT reporter plasmid resulted in decreased CAT gene expression in comparison to control transduced SupT1 cells. The antisense-TAR engineered SupT1 cell line was then challenged with HIV-1MN.HIV-1 viral production was inhibited in SupT1 cells transduced with the antisense-TAR retroviral vector. Greater inhibition of HIV-1 was observed with antisense-TAR as compared to antisense-Tat expressing retroviral vector. These observations suggest that antisense-TAR retroviral vectors are potentially useful for clinical anti-HIV-1 gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Gene Therapy Branch, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Chuah
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: VandenDriessche
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ensoli
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Morgan
mesh_terms: D015139:Blotting, Southern; D002460:Cell Line; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase / Q000235:genetics; D015967:Gene Expression Regulation, Viral; D015756:Genes, tat; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D016325:HIV Long Terminal Repeat; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D014161:Transduction, Genetic; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D016372:RNA, Antisense; D015500:Chloramphenicol O-Acetyltransferase