Open AccessCharacterization of the Behavior of Functional Viral Genomes during the Early Steps of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection
Author(s) -
Vanessa Arfi,
Julia Liénard,
Xuan-Nhi Nguyen,
Grégory Berger,
Dominique Rigal,
JeanLuc Darlix,
Andrea Cimarelli
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.617
H-Index - 292
eISSN - 1070-6321
pISSN - 0022-538X
DOI - 10.1128/jvi.00429-09
Subject(s) - biology , nucleoprotein , capsid , virology , viral entry , viral replication , virus , reverse transcriptase , viral structural protein , dna , transcription (linguistics) , genetics , rna , gene , linguistics , philosophy
Infectious viral DNA constitutes only a small fraction of the total viral DNA produced during retroviral infection, and as such its exact behavior is largely unknown. In the present study, we characterized in detail functional viral DNA produced during the early steps of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection by analyzing systematically their kinetics of synthesis and integration in different target cells. In addition, we have compared the functional stability of viral nucleoprotein complexes arrested at their pre-reverse transcription state, and we have attempted to measure the kinetics of loss of capsid proteins from viral complexes through the susceptibility of the early phases of infection to cyclosporine, a known inhibitor of the interaction between viral capsid and cyclophilin A. Overall, our data suggest a model in which loss of capsid proteins from viral complexes and reverse transcription occur concomitantly and in which the susceptibility of target cells to infection results from a competition between the ability of the cellular environment to quickly destabilize viral nucleoprotein complexes and the capability of the virus to escape such targeting by engaging the reverse transcription reaction.