20.109(F09): John and Ashley HIV Rev

In this page we will add 5 useful journals and summarize them.

Review of existing literature

Novel regulation of HIV-1 replication and pathogenicity: Rev inhibition of integration

This paper was published extremely recently (10/29/09) and focuses on establishing the role of the Rev protein in HIV infected cells. Rev has been previously established as a protein that exports viral RNA from the nucleus. Before this study it was also established that Rev has an additional role of binding the protein Integrase (IN). IN is carried by the HIV virus and is responsible for integrating the viral genome into the host's. This study begins by establishing that these two proteins bind (via co-IP). These researchers also establish that Rev is expressed 6 hours post-insertion (PI) meaning that it is translated without being integrated into the genome. When Rev is expressed in wt cells, it inhibits the activity of integrase and results in 1-2 HIV genome integrations per cell. When Rev is absent the cells undergo as many as 13 integrations and often die due to lysis, and when Rev is overexpressed there are 0-1 insertions. This data implies that Rev is responsible for maintaining a viable amount of virus integration so that HIV can prosper with in an organism.