Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.6 (RNA polymerase)
34,946 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Reverse transcriptase (RT) was first discovered as an essential catalyst in the biological cycle of retroviruses. However, in the past years evidence has accumulated showing that RTs are involved in a surprisingly large number of RNA-mediated transpositional events that include both viral and nonviral genetic entities. Although it is probable that some RT-bearing genetic elements like the different types of AIDS viruses and the mammalian LINE family have arisen in recent geological times, the possibility that reverse transcription first took place in the early Archean is supported by (1) the hypothesis that RNA preceded DNA as cellular genetic material; (2) the existence of homologous regions of the subunit tau of the E. coli DNA polymerase III with the simian immunodeficiency virus RT, the hepatitis B virus RT, and the beta' subunit of the E. coli RNA polymerase (McHenry et al. 1988); (3) the presence of several conserved motifs, including a 14-amino-acid segment that consists of an Asp-Asp pair flanked by hydrophobic amino acids, which are found in all RTs and in most cellular and viral RNA polymerases. However, whether extant RTs descend from the primitive polymerase involved in the RNA-to-DNA transition remains unproven. Substrate specificity of the AMV and HIV-1 RTs can be modified in the presence of Mn2+, a cation which allows them to add ribonucleotides to an oligo (dG) primer in a template-dependent reaction. This change in specificity is comparable to that observed under similar conditions in other nucleic acid polymerases. This experimentally induced change in RT substrate specificity may explain previous observations on the misincorporation of ribonucleotides by the Maloney murine sarcoma virus RT in the minus and plus DNA of this retrovirus (Chen and Temin 1980). Our results also suggest that HIV-infected macrophages and T-cell cells may contain mixed polynucleotides containing both ribo- and deoxyribonucleotides. The evolutionary significance of these changes in substrate specificities of nucleic acid polymerases is also discussed.
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PMID:On the early emergence of reverse transcription: theoretical basis and experimental evidence. 128 61

In vitro infectivity of the MT4 lymphoid cell line with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been studied in correlation with the degree of expression of the CD4 molecule at the cell surface. To modulate this CD4 expression in vitro, pre-incubation with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) was used. The lowest CD4 expression was obtained after 1 to 5 hours. Thereafter, a partial re-expression of OKT4 was observed, e.g., when the incubation time with PMA was extended to 20 hours. Reverse transcriptase (RT) activity decreased and was delayed proportionally to the length of incubation of cells with PMA. This observation was confirmed by the comparable variation of cytopathic effects and of p24 antigen release in culture supernatants. The decrease in HIV infectivity hence correlated with that of OKT4 expression when PMA treatment did not exceed a few hours. By contrast, after extended treatment, infectivity remained decreased although OKT4 expression reappeared.
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PMID:Phorbol ester induces down-regulation of CD4 molecule expression and resistance to in vitro infection by HIV1. 128 70

Infection due to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 2 is believed to cause a clinical picture similar to that of HIV-1, although extensive data are not available. In 2 patients with West African exposure and neurologic symptoms, HIV-2 was detected in the central nervous system using DNA and RNA polymerase chain reaction, in situ hybridization, and immunohistology. In the first patient, the neurologic disease was most likely due to productive infection with HIV-2. In the second, a combination of neuropathologic abnormalities (including the presence of HIV-2) explained the clinical features. Thus HIV-2, like HIV-1, can be readily detected in brain tissue in patients with neurologic abnormalities, although the exact role of HIV-2 in pathogenesis of AIDS-associated neurologic disease requires further study.
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PMID:Detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 in brain tissue. 135 28

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is the etiologic agent of leukemia in cattle and is believed to cause decreases in milk productivity, fertility, and life span in infected cows. BLV is a type C retrovirus in the Oncovirinae subfamily. It is most closely related to human T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) and type II (HTLV-II). Since the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides rapid and efficient amplification of DNA sequences, primers were designed to amplify regions of the polymerase (pol) and pX genes specific for BLV targets. These sets of primers consistently amplified as few as 10 copies of BLV DNA contained in a plasmid in the background of 1 microgram of either human or bovine chromosomal DNA. In addition, no amplification products were detected from cell lines infected with HTLV-I, HTLV-II, or human immunodeficiency virus type 1 or 2 by the BLV PCR systems. Samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 18 cows, previously determined to be serologically positive or negative, were correctly identified in a blind study as containing proviral DNA by use of the BLV primers and probes. Cloning and sequencing of amplified products revealed finite sequence variations among a previously cloned BLV isolate, the wild-type virus, and the published genome. Reverse transcriptase-directed PCR with the primers for both BLV pol and BLV pX was performed on plasma from a BLV-infected cow and detected in vivo BLV RNA expression. In summary, we have developed a specific and sensitive assay using PCR for the detection and identification of BLV infections; this assay can now be applied to clinical and basic research questions in veterinary medicine.
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PMID:Amplification and analysis of specific DNA and RNA sequences of bovine leukemia virus from infected cows by polymerase chain reaction. 137 Aug 47

The genomic hypervariation of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) could result from misincorporations by the viral reverse transcriptase. We developed an assay for reverse transcriptase fidelity during RNA-dependent as well as DNA-dependent DNA polymerization in vitro. A lacZ alpha RNA fragment transcribed by T3 RNA polymerase was used to mimic first-strand reverse transcription. The corresponding DNA template was used to examine errors by reverse transcriptase during second-strand DNA synthesis. With both templates, the mutations introduced by reverse transcriptase were identified by their mutant phenotypes in an M13 lacZ alpha-complementation assay. We found that the reverse transcriptase from human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1 RT) was less accurate than the reverse transcriptase from Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV RT) or the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (Pol I) on either RNA or DNA templates. The frequency of misincorporation by HIV-1 RT was 1 in 6900 nucleotides polymerized on the RNA template and 1 in 5900 on the DNA template. The error rates of MLV RT and Pol I on the RNA template were less than 1 in 28,000 and 37,000, respectively. The most frequent mutations produced by HIV-1 RT copying the RNA template were C----T transitions and G----T transversions resulting from misincorporation of dAMP.
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PMID:Fidelity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase copying RNA in vitro. 137 Sep 10

Full-length and 5'-truncated variants of human (h) tRNA(UUULys3) were synthesized by in vitro transcription using SP6 RNA polymerase. Bovine(b) tRNA(SUULys3) was purified from calf liver. Both full-length tRNA species were shown to be biologically active in an aminoacylation assay. Gel retardation assays revealed that both full-length tRNA species, as well as a 5'-truncated h-tRNA(UUULys3) molecule containing 24 nucleotides (nt) at the 3' end (Lys24), interact with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 reverse transcriptase (RT). Competition studies with these three tRNA species demonstrate that the 3' end of h-tRNA(UUULys3) contributes to the interaction with HIV-1 RT. Escherichia coli tRNA(UUULys) and tRNA(UUCGlu2) were also able to interact with the enzyme, whereas unrelated RNA molecules such as E. coli 5S rRNA did not bind to RT. Both b-tRNA(SUULys3) and h-tRNA(UUULys3) molecules, as well as the 5'-truncated variants, could be demonstrated to prime cDNA synthesis specifically using a HIV-1 RNA template, prepared by in vitro transcription, indicating that other viral or cellular proteins are not essential for this process. E. coli tRNA(UUULys) and tRNA(UUCGlu2), although able to interact with HIV-1 RT, failed to prime retroviral transcription. Products of cDNA synthesis were characterized by polymerase chain reaction, demonstrating that at least 18 nt at the 3' ends of h-tRNA(UUULys3) and b-tRNA(SUULys3) are still present in the cDNA product, whereas the 5' ends of both primer molecules were removed by the RNase H activity of HIV-1 RT.
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PMID:Synthetic human tRNA(UUULys3) and natural bovine tRNA(UUULys3) interact with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and serve as specific primers for retroviral cDNA synthesis. 137 59

The in vitro fidelity of reverse transcriptase from human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1 RT) upon copying an RNA template was measured using the phi Xam 16 reversion assay. A phi X174 sequence harboring the amber 16 codon was cloned into a transcription vector. RNA obtained from transcription by bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase was used as a template for RNA-directed DNA synthesis by HIV-1 RT. An imbalance of dNTP concentrations during the reverse transcription step served to distinguish between errors that arose from the transcription step and errors from reverse transcription. The frequency of dGTP.U mismatches was determined to be 1/360, while dGTP.rA mismatches formed at a rate of 1/4600. These are 20-fold and sevenfold higher, respectively, than the error rates determined for the same sequence with a DNA template. Due to a high background of errors in the RNA template originating from the transcription step only upper limits for the frequency of three other mismatches can be given. The data indicate that the reverse transcription step of the HIV-1 replication cycle contributes significantly to the generation of mutant viruses.
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PMID:Fidelity of human immunodeficiency virus type I reverse transcriptase in copying natural RNA. 137 12

Human endothelial cells isolated from hepatic sinusoids were infected in vitro with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). An early sign of infection occurring in the culture was the formation of multinucleated cells. By double-labeling immunofluorescence, 5-15% of the cells recognized as endothelial cells owing to the presence of von Willebrand factor were found to contain HIV p24 and gp120 antigens after 2 weeks. Reverse transcriptase activity was released into the medium, and different steps in the process of viral budding were observed by electron microscopy. The virus produced by the endothelial cells was found to be infectious for CEM cells, a human T-cell line. CD4 molecules are present at the surface of the endothelial cells, as demonstrated by immunogold-silver staining and backscattered electron imaging. Treatment with an anti-CD4 antibody abolished productive infection of the sinusoidal endothelial cells. The possibility that endothelial cells of the liver sinusoid are infected in vivo with HIV remains to be clearly shown.
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PMID:Primary cultures of endothelial cells from the human liver sinusoid are permissive for human immunodeficiency virus type 1. 137 78

AIDS, caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is one of the world's most serious health problems, with current protocols being inadequate for either prevention or successful long-term treatment. In retroviruses such as HIV, the enzyme reverse transcriptase copies the single-stranded RNA genome into double-stranded DNA that is then integrated into the chromosomes of infected cells. Reverse transcriptase is the target of the most widely used treatments for AIDS, 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (ddI), but resistant strains of HIV-1 arise in patients after a relatively short time. There are several nonnucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, but resistance to such agents also develops rapidly. We report here the structure at 7 A resolution of a ternary complex of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase heterodimer, a monoclonal antibody Fab fragment, and a duplex DNA template-primer. The double-stranded DNA binds in a groove on the surface of the enzyme. The electron density near one end of the DNA matches well with the known structure of the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase RNase H domain. At the opposite end of the DNA, a mercurated derivative of UTP has been localized by difference Fourier methods, allowing tentative identification of the polymerase nucleoside triphosphate binding site. We also determined the structure of the reverse transcriptase/Fab complex in the absence of template-primer to compare the bound and free forms of the enzyme. The presence of DNA correlates with movement of protein electron density in the vicinity of the putative template-primer binding groove. These results have important implications for developing improved inhibitors of reverse transcriptase for the treatment of AIDS.
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PMID:Structure of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase/DNA complex at 7 A resolution showing active site locations. 137 66

Three strains of virus isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of sick cats were identified as feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) on the basis of in vitro cytopathic effect, T-lymphotropism, ultrastructural morphology and magnesium-dependent reverse-transcriptase activity. The pathogenic properties of two isolates were studied in 13 experimentally infected cats. The primary phase of infection was characterised by a range of haematological (neutropenia, lymphopenia, presence of atypical lymphocytes) and clinical alterations (fever, various signs lasting several weeks, generalised lymphadenopathy persisting for several months) and specific seroconversion. A correlation between the inoculated dose of virus and the intensity and duration of clinical signs was observed. The primary phase was followed in the 10 surviving cats by a stage of asymptomatic seropositivity of undetermined duration but which has persisted for over 35 months for the earliest infections. Viruses reisolated several weeks or months after experimental infection retained the same in vitro properties as the initial isolates.
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PMID:In vitro properties and experimental pathogenic effect of three strains of feline immunodeficiency viruses (FIV) isolated from cats with terminal disease. 137 38


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