Open AccessDe novo reverse transcription is a crucial event in cell-to-cell transmission of human immunodeficiency virus
Author(s) -
Peng Li,
Lara J. Kuiper,
Alice J. Stephenson,
Christopher J. Burrell
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of general virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1465-2099
pISSN - 0022-1317
DOI - 10.1099/0022-1317-73-4-955
Subject(s) - biology , virology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , transmission (telecommunications) , reverse transcriptase , cell , virus , transcription (linguistics) , rna , genetics , gene , linguistics , philosophy , electrical engineering , engineering
The proposal that replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), mediated by cell-to-cell transmission of the virus, might bypass de novo reverse transcription was tested by using one-step cell-to-cell and cell-free virus infection systems. Two well characterized reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors, azidothymidine at 20 microM and phosphonoformic acid at 100 micrograms/ml, blocked HIV replication completely following both cell-free virus and cell-to-cell transmission infection, as determined from the kinetics of unintegrated viral DNA synthesis and supernatant RT production after virus infection. Our results confirm that de novo reverse transcription is a crucial and mandatory event in HIV-1 replication following cell-to-cell transmission of the virus.