Back to Search Start Over

Human protein Staufen-2 promotes HIV-1 proliferation by positively regulating RNA export activity of viral protein Rev.

Authors :
Banerjee, Atoshi
Benjamin, Ronald
Balakrishnan, Kannan
Ghosh, Payel
Banerjee, Sharmistha
Source :
Retrovirology; 2014, Vol. 11 Issue 1, preceding p1-22, 30p
Publication Year :
2014

Abstract

Background The export of intron containing viral RNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm is an essential step in the life cycle of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1). As the eukaryotic system does not permit the transport of intron containing RNA out of the nucleus, HIV-1 makes a regulatory protein, Rev, that mediates the transportation of unspliced and partially spliced viral mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, thereby playing a decisive role in the generation of new infectious virus particles. Therefore, the host factors modulating the RNA export activity of Rev can be major determinants of virus production in an infected cell. Results In this study, human Staufen-2 (hStau-2) was identified as a host factor interacting with HIV- 1 Rev through affinity chromatography followed by MALDI analyses. Our experiments involving transient expressions, siRNA mediated knockdowns and infection assays conclusively established that hStau-2 is a positive regulator of HIV-1 pathogenesis. We demonstrated that Rev-hStau-2 interactions positively regulated the RNA export activity of Rev and promoted progeny virus synthesis. The Rev-hStau-2 interaction was independent of RNA despite both being RNA binding proteins. hStau-2 mutant, with mutations at Q314R2 A318F-K319E, deficient of binding Rev, failed to promote hStau-2 dependent Rev activity and viral production, validating the essentiality of this protein-protein interaction. The expression of this positive regulator was elevated upon HIV-1 infection in both human Tlymphocyte and astrocyte cell lines. Conclusion With this study, we establish that human Staufen-2, a host factor which is up-regulated upon HIV-1 infection, interacts with HIV-1 Rev, thereby promoting its RNA export activity and progeny virus formation. Altogether, our study provides new insights into the emerging role of the Staufen family of mRNA transporters in host-pathogen interaction and supports the notion that obliterating interactions between viral and host proteins that positively regulate HIV-1 proliferation can significantly contribute to anti-retroviral treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
17424690
Volume :
11
Issue :
1
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Retrovirology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
94481270
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-11-18