Nucleic acids encoding human immunodeficiency virus type 1 genetic suppressor elements

摘要

The development of general approaches for the isolation of efficient antivirals is becoming increasingly important. The genetic suppressor element (GSE) technology is an approach based on the functional expression and selection of efficient genetic inhibitors from random fragment libraries derived from a gene or genome of interest. We have applied this technology to isolate potent genetic inhibitors against the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) The strategy employed involved the following steps: 1) fragmenting the HIV-1 genome into 100-700 base pair (bp) fragments; 2) inserting the fragments into expression vectors to form an expression library; 3) transferring the expression library into a population of cells (e.g., OM10.1) containing an inducible latent HIV-1 provirus; 4) selecting a subpopulation of cells which contain a subset of the expression library enriched for HIV-1 GSE by monitoring the expression of a cellular (e.g., CD4) or viral (e.g., p24) marker associated with HIV infection; 5) recovering the GSE from the selected cell population. The GSEs identified clustered in seven narrowly defined regions of the HIV-1 genome and were found to be functionally active. These elements are potential candidates for the gene therapy of AIDS. The developed approaches can be applied to other viral pathogens, as well as, for the identification of cellular genes supporting the HIV-1 life cycle.