Publication Date:
1986-08-08
Description:
A variant of human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) is described that replicates but does not kill normal human T cells in vitro. This variant, designated X10-1, was derived from the genome of a cytopathic HTLV-III clone (pHXB2D) by excision of a 200-base pair segment in the 3' region of the virus, spanning the env and 3'-orf genes. Comparable variants with 55 to 109 base pairs deleted exclusively in 3'-orf produced, in contrast, virus that was extremely cytopathic. On the basis of these findings it is concluded that the 3'-orf gene is not required for cytopathogenicity or replication of HTLV-III. In addition, the results suggest that virus replication and cytotoxicity are not intrinsically coupled. Furthermore, since clone X10-1 retains the ability to trans-activate genes linked to the viral long terminal repeats, trans-activation per se is not responsible for T-cell killing by HTLV-III. These results also raise the possibility that the carboxyl terminus of the envelope gene of HTLV-III has a direct role in T-cell killing by this virus.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fisher, A G -- Ratner, L -- Mitsuya, H -- Marselle, L M -- Harper, M E -- Broder, S -- Gallo, R C -- Wong-Staal, F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1986 Aug 8;233(4764):655-9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3014663" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*microbiology
;
Cloning, Molecular
;
Deltaretrovirus/*genetics/pathogenicity
;
Humans
;
Mutation
;
Nucleic Acid Hybridization
;
RNA, Viral/genetics
;
T-Lymphocytes/microbiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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