HIV replicates inside infection-fighting human immune cells called CD4+ T cells through complex processes that include inserting its genes into cellular DNA. The scientists discovered that during this integration step, a cellular enzyme called DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) becomes activated. DNA-PK normally coordinates the repair of simultaneous breaks in both strands of molecules that comprise DNA. As HIV integrates its genes into cellular DNA, single-stranded breaks occur where viral and cellular DNA meet. Nevertheless, the scientists discovered, the DNA breaks during HIV integration surprisingly activate DNA-PK, which then performs an unusually destructive role: eliciting a signal that causes the CD4+ T cell to die. The cells that succumb to this death signal are the very ones mobilized to fight the infection.<\/p>\n
According to the scientists, these new findings suggest that treating HIV-infected individuals with drugs that block early steps of viral replication \u2014 up to and including activation of DNA-PK and integration \u2014 not only can prevent viral replication, but also may improve CD4+ T cell survival and immune function. The findings also may shed light on how reservoirs of resting HIV-infected cells develop and may aid efforts to eliminate these sites of persistent infection.<\/p>\n
Story Source:
\nThe above story is reprinted from materials provided by NIH\/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HIV replicates inside infection-fighting human immune cells called CD4+ T cells through complex processes that include inserting its genes into cellular DNA. The scientists discovered that during this integration step, a cellular enzyme called DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) becomes activated. DNA-PK normally coordinates the repair of simultaneous breaks in both strands of molecules that comprise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"","type":"","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[],"bad":[],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[],"price":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bioengineering-news","category-headlines"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bioengineer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/hiv.jpeg?fit=480%2C325&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bioengineer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}