Enhancement or inhibition of HIV-1 replication by intracellular expression of sense or antisense RNA targetted at different intermediates of reverse transcription.

Objectives: To construct retroviral vectors expressing sense or antisense RNA targeted at HIV reverse transcription intermediates, and to test the anti-HIV properties of these constructs in transduced T cells. Design: Five double-copy retroviral vectors were constructed, in which the expression of the sense or antisense RNA corresponding to HIV minus- or plus-strand strong-stop DNA was driven by the human tRNAmet promoter. Method: The templates for the sense or antisense RNA were polymerase chain reaction-cloned from HIV pNL43 into a murine leukaemia virus-based vector and corresponding defective virions were packaged in PA317 cells. Human Jurkat T cells transduced with these vectors were challenged with HIV and monitored for viral RNA, viral DNA and p24 production for 23 weeks. Results: Intracellular expression of HIV sense RU5 sequences (RNA complementary to minus-strand strong-stop DNA) enhanced HIV replication in T cells. Expression of HIV sense or antisense U3RU5 sequences (identical or complementary to plus-strand strong-stop DNA) conferred long-term inhibition of HIV replication, despite continuous presence of viral challenge in the transduced cell cultures. Conclusion: Plus-strand strong-stop DNA as an intermediate in the early process of viral reverse transcription can be explored as an additional target for anti-HIV gene therapy.Hairong Peng, Deborah E. Callison, Peng Li and Christopher J. Burrel