Articles

Obituary: Jonas Blomberg (1944–2019)

Authors: Patrik Medstrand and Patric Jern

Origin and recent expansion of an endogenous gammaretroviral lineage in domestic and wild canids

Vertebrate genomes contain a record of retroviruses that invaded the germlines of ancestral hosts and are passed to offspring as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). ERVs can impact host function since they contain...

Authors: Julia V. Halo, Amanda L. Pendleton, Abigail S. Jarosz, Robert J. Gifford, Malika L. Day and Jeffrey M. Kidd

Hypericin-photodynamic therapy inhibits the growth of adult T-cell leukemia cells through induction of apoptosis and suppression of viral transcription

Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive neoplasm caused by human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). ATL carries a poor prognosis due to chemotherapy resistance. Thus, it is urgent to develop new treat...

Authors: Lingling Xu, Xueqing Zhang, Wenzhao Cheng, Yong Wang, Kaining Yi, Zhilong Wang, Yiling Zhang, Linxiang Shao and Tiejun Zhao

Replication competence of virions induced from CD4+ lymphocytes latently infected with HIV

Latently infected CD4 lymphocytes preclude cure of HIV infection, even with the most effective antiretroviral therapy. The replication competent latent HIV reservoir has been quantified with the terminal dilut...

Authors: Douglas D. Richman, Karissa Huang, Steven M. Lada, Xiaoying Sun, Sonia Jain, Marta Massanella and Bryson Menke

Host mRNA decay proteins influence HIV-1 replication and viral gene expression in primary monocyte-derived macrophages

Mammalian cells harbour RNA quality control and degradative machineries such as nonsense-mediated mRNA decay that target cellular mRNAs for clearance from the cell to avoid aberrant gene expression. The role o...

Authors: Shringar Rao, Raquel Amorim, Meijuan Niu, Yann Breton, Michel J. Tremblay and Andrew J. Mouland

Sequential trafficking of Env and Gag to HIV-1 T cell virological synapses revealed by live imaging

HIV infection is enhanced by cell adhesions that form between infected and uninfected T cells called virological synapses (VS). VS are initiated by an interaction between Env and CD4 on cell surfaces and resul...

Authors: Lili Wang, Sudeh Izadmehr, Edwin Kamau, Xiang-Peng Kong and Benjamin K. Chen

Clonal anergy of CD117⁺chB6⁺ B cell progenitors induced by avian leukosis virus subgroup J is associated with immunological tolerance

The pathogenesis of immunological tolerance caused by avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J), an oncogenic retrovirus, is largely unknown.

Authors: Shuhai He, Gaoying Zheng, Defang Zhou, Gen Li, Mingjun Zhu, Xusheng Du, Jing Zhou and Ziqiang Cheng

Characterization update of HIV-1 M subtypes diversity and proposal for subtypes A and D sub-subtypes reclassification

The large and constantly evolving HIV-1 pandemic has led to an increasingly complex diversity. Because of some taxonomic difficulties among the most diverse HIV-1 subtypes, and taking advantage of the large am...

Authors: Nathalie Désiré, Lorenzo Cerutti, Quentin Le Hingrat, Marine Perrier, Stefan Emler, Vincent Calvez, Diane Descamps, Anne-Geneviève Marcelin, Stéphane Hué and Benoit Visseaux

The role of exosomal transport of viral agents in persistent HIV pathogenesis

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, despite great advances in antiretroviral therapy, remains a lifelong affliction. Though current treatment regimens can effectively suppress viral load to undetecta...

Authors: Benjamin J. Patters and Santosh Kumar

Natural APOBEC3C variants can elicit differential HIV-1 restriction activity

The APOBEC3 (A3) family of DNA cytosine deaminases provides an innate barrier to infection by retroviruses including HIV-1. A total of five enzymes, A3C, A3D, A3F, A3G and A3H, are degraded by the viral access...

Authors: Brett D. Anderson, Terumasa Ikeda, Seyed Arad Moghadasi, Amber St. Martin, William L. Brown and Reuben S. Harris

Lipid levels, insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk over 96 weeks of antiretroviral therapy: a randomised controlled trial comparing low-dose stavudine and tenofovir

HIV infection and antiretroviral treatment are associated with changes in lipid levels, insulin resistance and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). We investigated these changes in the first 96 weeks of treat...

Authors: Alinda G. Vos, Matthew F. Chersich, Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch, Peter Zuithoff, Michelle A. Moorhouse, Samanta T. Lalla-Edward, Andrew Kambugu, N. Kumarasamy, Diederick E. Grobbee, Roos E. Barth and Willem D. Venter

Reduction of inflammation and T cell activation after 6 months of cART initiation during acute, but not in early chronic HIV-1 infection

To investigate the impact of early combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) on inflammation biomarkers and immune activation during acute and early chronic HIV-1 infection.

Authors: Hury Hellen Souza de Paula, Ana Cristina Garcia Ferreira, Diogo Gama Caetano, Edson Delatorre, Sylvia Lopes Maia Teixeira, Lara Esteves Coelho, Eduarda Grinsztejn João, Michelle Morata de Andrade, Sandra Wagner Cardoso, Beatriz Grinsztejn, Valdilea Gonçalves Veloso, Mariza Gonçalves Morgado, Monick Lindenmeyer Guimarães and Fernanda Heloise Côrtes

MBL2 gene polymorphisms in HHV-8 infection in people living with HIV/AIDS

Host genetic factors such as MBL2 gene polymorphisms cause defects in the polymerization of MBL protein and result in a functional deficiency and/or in low serum levels that can influence susceptibility to variou...

Authors: Viviane Martha Santos de Morais, Elker Lene Santos de Lima, Georgea Gertrudes de Oliveira Mendes Cahú, Thaisa Regina Rocha Lopes, Juliana Prado Gonçales, Maria Tereza Cartaxo Muniz and Maria Rosângela Cunha Duarte Coêlho

HIV-1 immunogens and strategies to drive antibody responses towards neutralization breadth

Despite enormous efforts no HIV-1 vaccine has been developed that elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to protect against infection to date. The high antigenic diversity and dense N-linked glycan armor...

Authors: Jelle van Schooten and Marit J. van Gils

Antibody-mediated prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infection

Novel broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting HIV-1 hold promise for their use in the prevention and treatment of HIV-1 infection. Pre-clinical results have encouraged the evaluation of these antibodies in h...

Authors: Henning Gruell and Florian Klein

Distinct gene expression signatures induced by viral transactivators of different HTLV-1 subgroups that confer a different risk of HAM/TSP

Among human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-infected individuals, there is an association between HTLV-1 tax subgroups (subgroup-A or subgroup-B) and the risk of HAM/TSP in the Japanese population. To inves...

Authors: Tadasuke Naito, Jun-ichirou Yasunaga, Yuichi Mitobe, Kazumasa Shirai, Hiroe Sejima, Hiroshi Ushirogawa, Yuetsu Tanaka, Tatsufumi Nakamura, Kousuke Hanada, Masahiro Fujii, Masao Matsuoka and Mineki Saito

The role of integration and clonal expansion in HIV infection: live long and prosper

Integration of viral DNA into the host genome is a central event in the replication cycle and the pathogenesis of retroviruses, including HIV. Although most cells infected with HIV are rapidly eliminated in vi...

Authors: Elizabeth M. Anderson and Frank Maldarelli

The expanding array of HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies

A large array of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against HIV have been isolated and described, particularly in the last decade. This continually expanding array of bnAbs has crucially led to the identi...

Authors: Laura E. McCoy

Host SAMHD1 protein restricts endogenous reverse transcription of HIV-1 in nondividing macrophages

SAM domain and HD domain containing protein 1 (SAMHD1) is a host anti-HIV-1 restriction factor known to suppress viral reverse transcription in nondividing myeloid cells by its dNTP triphosphorylase activity t...

Authors: Bijan Mahboubi, Christina Gavegnano, Dong-Hyun Kim, Raymond F. Schinazi and Baek Kim

Friend retrovirus infection induces the development of memory-like natural killer cells

Traditionally, NK cells belong to the innate immune system and eliminate virus-infected cells through their germline-encoded receptors. However, NK cells were recently reported to possess memory-like functions...

Authors: Elisabeth Littwitz-Salomon, Thanh Nguyen, Simone Schimmer and Ulf Dittmer

RNA-induced epigenetic silencing inhibits HIV-1 reactivation from latency

Current antiretroviral therapy is effective in controlling HIV-1 infection. However, cessation of therapy is associated with rapid return of viremia from the viral reservoir. Eradicating the HIV-1 reservoir ha...

Authors: Catalina Méndez, Scott Ledger, Kathy Petoumenos, Chantelle Ahlenstiel and Anthony D. Kelleher

Adeno-associated virus gene delivery of broadly neutralizing antibodies as prevention and therapy against HIV-1

Vectored gene delivery of HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) using recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) is a promising alternative to conventional vaccines for preventing new HIV-1 infections a...

Authors: Allen Lin and Alejandro B. Balazs

Cellular RelB interacts with the transactivator Tat and enhance HIV-1 expression

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Tat protein plays an essential role in HIV-1 gene transcription. Tat transactivates HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR)-directed gene expression through direct interact...

Authors: Meng Wang, Wei Yang, Yu Chen, Jian Wang, Juan Tan and Wentao Qiao

Potent suppression of HIV-1 cell attachment by Kudzu root extract

There is a constant need to improve antiretrovirals against HIV since therapy is limited by cost, side effects and the emergence of drug resistance. Kudzu is a climbing vine from which the root extract (Pueraria ...

Authors: S. Mediouni, J. A. Jablonski, S. Tsuda, A. Richard, C. Kessing, M. V. Andrade, A. Biswas, Y. Even, T. Tellinghuisen, H. Choe, M. Cameron, M. Stevenson and S. T. Valente

Stabilizing HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein trimers to induce neutralizing antibodies

An effective HIV-1 vaccine probably will need to be able to induce broadly neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies (bNAbs) in order to be efficacious. The many bNAbs that have been isolated from HIV-1 infected patients ...

Authors: Alba Torrents de la Peña and Rogier W. Sanders

Next-generation sequencing analyses of the emergence and maintenance of mutations in CTL epitopes in HIV controllers with differential viremia control

Despite the low level of viral replication in HIV controllers (HICs), studies have reported viral mutations related to escape from cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response in HIV-1 plasma sequences. Thus, evaluat...

Authors: Diogo Gama Caetano, Fernanda Heloise Côrtes, Gonzalo Bello, Sylvia Lopes Maia Teixeira, Brenda Hoagland, Beatriz Grinsztejn, Valdilea Gonçalves Veloso, Monick Lindenmeyer Guimarães and Mariza Gonçalves Morgado

Proceedings of the Frontiers in Retrovirology Conference 2018

Authors:

Development of broadly neutralizing antibodies in HIV-1 infected elite neutralizers

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs), able to prevent viral entry by diverse global viruses, are a major focus of HIV vaccine design, with data from animal studies confirming their ability to prevent HIV in...

Authors: Elise Landais and Penny L. Moore

Engineering multi-specific antibodies against HIV-1

As increasing numbers of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against HIV-1 enter clinical trials, it is becoming evident that combinations of mAbs are necessary to block infection by the diverse ...

Authors: Neal N. Padte, Jian Yu, Yaoxing Huang and David D. Ho

Nomenclature for endogenous retrovirus (ERV) loci

Retroviral integration into germline DNA can result in the formation of a vertically inherited proviral sequence called an endogenous retrovirus (ERV). Over the course of their evolution, vertebrate genomes ha...

Authors: Robert J. Gifford, Jonas Blomberg, John M. Coffin, Hung Fan, Thierry Heidmann, Jens Mayer, Jonathan Stoye, Michael Tristem and Welkin E. Johnson

Importance of Fc-mediated functions of anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies

Anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies (BnAbs) exhibit an impressive capacity to protect against chimeric SIV-HIV (SHIV) challenges in macaques and potently reduce viremia in both SHIV-infected macaques an...

Authors: Matthew S. Parsons, Amy W. Chung and Stephen J. Kent

Promoter expression of HERV-K (HML-2) provirus-derived sequences is related to LTR sequence variation and polymorphic transcription factor binding sites

Increased transcription of the human endogenous retrovirus group HERV-K (HML-2) is often seen during disease. Although the mechanism of its tissue-specific activation is unclear, research shows that LTR CpG hy...

Authors: Meagan Montesion, Zachary H. Williams, Ravi P. Subramanian, Charlotte Kuperwasser and John M. Coffin

Selective resistance profiles emerging in patient-derived clinical isolates with cabotegravir, bictegravir, dolutegravir, and elvitegravir

Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) are recommended for first-line HIV therapy based on their relatively high genetic barrier to resistance. Although raltegravir (RAL) and elvitegravir (EVG) resistan...

Authors: Maureen Oliveira, Ruxandra-Ilinca Ibanescu, Kaitlin Anstett, Thibault Mésplède, Jean-Pierre Routy, Marjorie A. Robbins and Bluma G. Brenner

The role of follicular helper CD4 T cells in the development of HIV-1 specific broadly neutralizing antibody responses

The induction of HIV-1-specific antibodies that can neutralize a broad number of isolates is a major goal of HIV-1 vaccination strategies. However, to date no candidate HIV-1 vaccine has successfully elicited ...

Authors: Eirini Moysi, Constantinos Petrovas and Richard A. Koup

Poly- and autoreactivity of HIV-1 bNAbs: implications for vaccine design

A central puzzle in HIV-1 research is the inability of vaccination or even infection to reliably elicit humoral responses against broadly neutralizing epitopes in the HIV-1 envelope protein. In infected indivi...

Authors: Joel Finney and Garnett Kelsoe

Broadly neutralizing antibodies: What is needed to move from a rare event in HIV-1 infection to vaccine efficacy?

The elicitation of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) is considered crucial for an effective, preventive HIV-1 vaccine. Led by the discovery of a new generation of potent bnAbs, the field has significantl...

Authors: Harini Subbaraman, Merle Schanz and Alexandra Trkola

HIV-1 cell-to-cell transmission and broadly neutralizing antibodies

HIV-1 spreads through contacts between infected and target cells. Polarized viral budding at the contact site forms the virological synapse. Additional cellular processes, such as nanotubes, filopodia, virus a...

Authors: Jérémy Dufloo, Timothée Bruel and Olivier Schwartz

Cell surface ectodomain integrity of a subset of functional HIV-1 envelopes is dependent on a conserved hydrophilic domain containing region in their C-terminal tail

HIV-1 Env gp160 is cleaved to form gp120 and gp41 and the functional HIV-1 Env is a trimer of non-covalently associated heterodimeric subunits, gp120 and gp41. The cleaved, native, trimeric form of Envs expose...

Authors: Sweety Samal, Supratik Das, Saikat Boliar, Huma Qureshi, Tripti Shrivastava, Naresh Kumar, Sandeep Goswami, Manish Bansal and Bimal K. Chakrabarti

Myricetin antagonizes semen-derived enhancer of viral infection (SEVI) formation and influences its infection-enhancing activity

Semen is a critical vector for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sexual transmission and harbors seminal amyloid fibrils that can markedly enhance HIV infection. Semen-derived enhancer of viral infection (SEV...

Authors: Ruxia Ren, Shuwen Yin, Baolong Lai, Lingzhen Ma, Jiayong Wen, Xuanxuan Zhang, Fangyuan Lai, Shuwen Liu and Lin Li

The invariant arginine within the chromatin-binding motif regulates both nucleolar localization and chromatin binding of Foamy virus Gag

Nuclear localization of Gag is a property shared by many retroviruses and retrotransposons. The importance of this stage for retroviral replication is still unknown, but studies on the Rous Sarcoma virus indic...

Authors: Joris Paris, Joëlle Tobaly-Tapiero, Marie-Lou Giron, Julien Burlaud-Gaillard, Florence Buseyne, Philippe Roingeard, Pascale Lesage, Alessia Zamborlini and Ali Saïb

Quantitation of the latent HIV-1 reservoir from the sequence diversity in viral outgrowth assays

The ability of HIV-1 to integrate into the genomes of quiescent host immune cells, establishing a long-lived latent viral reservoir (LVR), is the primary obstacle to curing these infections. Quantitative viral...

Authors: Art F. Y. Poon, Jessica L. Prodger, Briana A. Lynch, Jun Lai, Steven J. Reynolds, Jingo Kasule, Adam A. Capoferri, Susanna L. Lamers, Christopher W. Rodriguez, Daniel Bruno, Stephen F. Porcella, Craig Martens, Thomas C. Quinn and Andrew D. Redd

CD8⁺ T cells specific for conserved, cross-reactive Gag epitopes with strong ability to suppress HIV-1 replication

Development of AIDS vaccines for effective prevention of circulating HIV-1 is required, but no trial has demonstrated definitive effects on the prevention. Several recent T-cell vaccine trials showed no protec...

Authors: Hayato Murakoshi, Chengcheng Zou, Nozomi Kuse, Tomohiro Akahoshi, Takayuki Chikata, Hiroyuki Gatanaga, Shinichi Oka, Tomáš Hanke and Masafumi Takiguchi

Reticuloendotheliosis virus and avian leukosis virus subgroup J synergistically increase the accumulation of exosomal miRNAs

Co-infection with avian leukosis virus subgroup J and reticuloendotheliosis virus induces synergistic pathogenic effects and increases mortality. However, the role of exosomal miRNAs in the molecular mechanism...

Authors: Defang Zhou, Jingwen Xue, Shuhai He, Xusheng Du, Jing Zhou, Chengui Li, Libo Huang, Venugopal Nair, Yongxiu Yao and Ziqiang Cheng

Global phosphoproteomics of CCR5-tropic HIV-1 signaling reveals reprogramming of cellular protein production pathways and identifies p70-S6K1 and MK2 as HIV-responsive kinases required for optimal infection of CD4+ T cells

Viral reprogramming of host cells enhances replication and is initiated by viral interaction with the cell surface. Upon human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) binding to CD4+ T cells, a signal transduction cascad...

Authors: Danica D. Wiredja, Caroline O. Tabler, Daniela M. Schlatzer, Ming Li, Mark R. Chance and John C. Tilton

The KT Jeang Retrovirology prize 2018: Eric Freed

Authors:

The RNA surveillance proteins UPF1, UPF2 and SMG6 affect HIV-1 reactivation at a post-transcriptional level

The ability of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) to form a stable viral reservoir is the major obstacle to an HIV-1 cure and post-transcriptional events contribute to the maintenance of viral latency...

Authors: Shringar Rao, Raquel Amorim, Meijuan Niu, Abdelkrim Temzi and Andrew J. Mouland

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy studies of human immunodeficiency virus

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy combines the ability to observe biological processes beyond the diffraction limit of conventional light microscopy with all advantages of the fluorescence readout such ...

Authors: Jakub Chojnacki and Christian Eggeling

Obituary: Remembering Professor David Cooper

Authors: Stuart Turville and Anthony Kelleher

HIV-1 Tat phosphorylation on Ser-16 residue modulates HIV-1 transcription

HIV-1 transcription activator protein Tat is phosphorylated in vitro by CDK2 and DNA-PK on Ser-16 residue and by PKR on Tat Ser-46 residue. Here we analyzed Tat phosphorylation in cultured cells and its functi...

Authors: Andrey Ivanov, Xionghao Lin, Tatiana Ammosova, Andrey V. Ilatovskiy, Namita Kumari, Hatajai Lassiter, Nowah Afangbedji, Xiaomei Niu, Michael G. Petukhov and Sergei Nekhai

Replacement of feline foamy virus bet by feline immunodeficiency virus vif yields replicative virus with novel vaccine candidate potential

Hosts are able to restrict viral replication to contain virus spread before adaptive immunity is fully initiated. Many viruses have acquired genes directly counteracting intrinsic restriction mechanisms. This ...

Authors: Carmen Ledesma-Feliciano, Sarah Hagen, Ryan Troyer, Xin Zheng, Esther Musselman, Dragana Slavkovic Lukic, Ann-Mareen Franke, Daniel Maeda, Jörg Zielonka, Carsten Münk, Guochao Wei, Sue VandeWoude and Martin Löchelt