title: Turning up the volume on mutational pressure: is more of a good thing always better? (A case study of HIV-1 Vif and APOBEC3).
abstract: APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F are human cytidine deaminases that serve as innate antiviral defense mechanisms primarily by introducing C-to-U changes in the minus strand DNA of retroviruses during replication (resulting in G-to-A mutations in the genomic sense strand sequence). The HIV-1 Vif protein counteracts this defense by promoting the proteolytic degradation of APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F in the host cell. In the absence of Vif expression, APOBEC3 is incorporated into HIV-1 virions and the viral genome undergoes extensive G-to-A mutation, or "hypermutation", typically rendering it non-viable within a single replicative cycle. Consequently, Vif is emerging as an attractive target for pharmacological intervention and therapeutic vaccination. Although a highly effective Vif inhibitor may result in mutational meltdown of the viral quasispecies, a partially effective Vif inhibitor may accelerate the evolution of drug resistance and immune escape due to the codon structure and recombinogenic nature of HIV-1. This hypothesis rests on two principal assumptions which are supported by experimental evidence: a) there is a dose response between intracellular APOBEC concentration and degree of viral hypermutation, and, b) HIV-1 can tolerate an elevated mutation rate, and a true error or extinction threshold is as yet undetermined. Rigorous testing of this hypothesis will have timely and critical implications for the therapeutic management of HIV/AIDS, and delve into the complexities underlying the induction of lethal mutagenesis in a viral pathogen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. satish.pillai@ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Satish K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pillai
authors.forename: Joseph K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Barbour
mesh_terms: D000071480:APOBEC-3G Deaminase; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003564:Cytidine Deaminase / Q000378:metabolism*; D043525:Cytosine Deaminase / Q000378:metabolism*; D016333:HIV Protease / Q000235:genetics; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase / Q000235:genetics; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation / Q000187:drug effects; D054320:vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D054320:vif Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus; C514847:vif protein, Human immunodeficiency virus 1; C514824:reverse transcriptase, Human immunodeficiency virus 1; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase; D016333:HIV Protease; C492906:APOBEC3F protein, human; D043525:Cytosine Deaminase; D000071480:APOBEC-3G Deaminase; C464924:APOBEC3G protein, human; D003564:Cytidine Deaminase