疾病及处理

Many viral proteins influence the cellular pathways that control cell proliferation and cell death. Some viral proteins trigger apoptotic cell death, and this may be important in host defense and viral spread. In other cases, viral proteins inhibit apoptosis. In this chapter, we will descri ...

The vast majority of anogenital carcinomas are caused by high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs), and among Western nations HPV-16 is usually the most predominant cancer-associated type. As a DNA virus, HPV type 16 has a relatively stable genome that is believed to have co-evolved with its host ...

The high-risk mucosal human papillomavirus E6 proteins were the first viral proteins that were shown to use the ubiquitin proteasome pathway for the inactivation of their cellular target proteins. The first substrate to be identified was the p53 tumor suppressor protein, and since then ma ...

It is slowly becoming accepted that adeno-associated virus (AAV) is another significant factor involved in cervical carcinogenesis. However, unlike human papillomavirus (HPV), which is positively associated with cervical cancer, AAV is negatively associated with this cancer. ...

A cornerstone of human papillomavirus (HPV) research was the demonstration that those HPV types associated with the development of cervical cancer encode two potent oncoproteins, while those HPV types associated with only benign lesions do not. Thus both HPV-16 E6 and E7 will transform est ...

The product of the early gene E7 is one of the major transforming proteins of human papillomaviruses (HPVs). It exerts its activity by associating with and altering the biological functions of several cellular proteins involved in the control of fundamental events, such as cell proliferat ...

The mechanism of assembly of retroviruses is not fully understood. Purification of retroviral Gag protein and studying its solution state and assembly properties might provide insights into retroviral assembly mechanisms. Here we describe a rapid method for the purification of Gag a ...

HIV-1 Nucleocapsid protein (NC) is a small basic protein that contains two retroviral zinc fingers. It is a highly effective nucleic acid chaperone that plays a critical role in viral replication acting as a cofactor in reverse transcription as well as other aspects of the viral lifecycle. We have u ...

In HIV-1, tRNALys3 serves as the primer for reverse transcription of minus strand strong stop cDNA. During viral assembly, the tRNALys isoacceptors, tRNALys1,2 and tRNALys3, are selectively packaged into the virion. The selectively packaging of tRNALys3 facilitates the annealing of t ...

The reverse transcriptase enzyme plays an essential role in the HIV-1 life cycle by converting a single-stranded viral RNA genome into a double-stranded viral DNA through a complex process known as reverse transcription. The resulting double-stranded DNA is integrated into the host chr ...

Uncoating is an essential step in the retrovirus life cycle about which little is known. Uncoating is defined as the specific dissociation of the capsid shell from the viral core in the host cell cytoplasm. In this chapter, biochemical assays for studying HIV-1 uncoating in vitro are described. Th ...

The unintegrated viral DNA synthesized during human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection includes linear and circular forms. Circular forms of viral DNA are surrogate markers for nuclear import of viral DNA during virus replication as well as events surrounding the completion of r ...

The generation of genetic diversity is a fundamental characteristic of HIV-1 replication, allowing the virus to successfully evade the immune response and antiviral therapies. Although mutations are the first step towards diversity, mixing of the mutations through the process of re ...

Shortly after penetration into the cell, HIV-1 must reverse transcribe its genome into a double-stranded DNA molecule and must gain access to the nucleus of nondividing cells for productive infection. There is limited knowledge of these early events in HIV-1 life cycle. We have developed meth ...

Molecular details and temporal organization of the early (preintegration) phase of HIV life cycle remain among the least investigated and most controversial problems in the biology of HIV. To accomplish reverse transcription and intracellular transport of the viral genetic mater ...

Cellular proteins are critically involved in all steps of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 HIV-1) life cycle. Disruption of host functions essential for virus replication or discovery of new proteins that block viral replication may provide novel antiviral approaches. In recent ...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a powerful technology for studying the functional significance of genes. The technique is more accessible than gene knockout methods, and is directly applicable to diverse human cells. However, inadequate reductions in target mRNAs can reduce the utility of R ...

HIV-1 replication involves a complex network of multiple protein–protein interactions. HIV-1 viral proteins exhibit both homomeric interactions among themselves and heteromeric interactions with other viral or cellular proteins. Identification and characterizati ...

HIV-associated dementia (HAD) is a multi-factorial disease set in motion by the presence of HIV-infected cells in the brain. A characteristic feature of HAD is the infiltration of mononuclear phagocytes into the brain, which is aided by HIV-1 Tat protein and other chemokines secreted by both HIV ...

Small animal models in which in vivo HIV-1 infection, pathogenesis, and immune responses can be studied would permit both basic research on the biology of the disease, as well as a system to rapidly screen developmental therapeutics and/or vaccines. To date, the most widely-used models have been t ...