title: HIV-1 Vif and APOBEC3G: multiple roads to one goal.
abstract: The viral infectivity factor, Vif, of human immunodeficiency virus type 1, HIV-1, has long been shown to promote viral replication in vivo and to serve a critical function for productive infection of non-permissive cells, like peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Vif functions to counteract an anti-retroviral cellular factor in non-permissive cells named APOBEC3G. The current mechanism proposed for protection of the virus by HIV-1 Vif is to induce APOBEC3G degradation through a ubiquitination-dependent proteasomal pathway. However, a new study published in Retrovirology by Strebel and colleagues suggests that Vif-induced APOBEC3G destruction may not be required for Vif's virus-protective effect. Strebel and co-workers show that Vif and APOBEC3G can stably co-exist, and yet viruses produced under such conditions are fully infectious. This new result highlights the notion that depletion of APOBEC3G is not the sole protective mechanism of Vif and that additional mechanisms exerted by this protein can be envisioned which counteract APOBEC3G and enhance HIV infectivity.
authors.affiliation: URIA-Centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-019 Lisboa, Portugal. joao.goncalves@ff.ul.pt
authors.forename: Joao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goncalves
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santa-Marta
mesh_terms: D000071480:APOBEC-3G Deaminase; D003564:Cytidine Deaminase; D016346:Gene Products, vif / Q000235:genetics*; D016341:Genes, vif; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009700:Nucleoside Deaminases / Q000235:genetics*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014779:Virus Replication; D054320:vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus
chemical_list: D016346:Gene Products, vif; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D054320:vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; D009700:Nucleoside Deaminases; D000071480:APOBEC-3G Deaminase; C464924:APOBEC3G protein, human; D003564:Cytidine Deaminase