Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.30.2 (endonuclease)
18,621 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To investigate the prevalence and the natural history of human papillomavirus infections, we monitored HPV DNA shedding as a consequence of immunosuppression, with the expectation that latent viral infections would reactivate and become detectable. The study populations consisted of women who were in end-stage renal failure, those who ultimately received kidney transplantations, and those who had HIV/AIDS with various degrees of immune depression at entry. For each woman, cervico-vaginal lavage to sample viral shedding from the lower genital tract was performed at approximately six month intervals, and the cohorts have been followed since 1996. Nested polymerase chain reaction amplification of papillomavirus DNA using novel pairs of primers was followed by diagnostic restriction endonuclease cleavage or by DNA sequencing. This strategy is particularly capable of identifying single and multiple infections and determining the genotypes of any viruses present. Of the 225 women in the HIV cohort, 177 (79%) were HPV-positive and 111 (49%) shed from two up to eight different HPV types over the course of the survey. Thirty-five different mucosotropic HPV types, virtually all that have ever been described worldwide, were isolated from these 225 women, and nine additional new (provisional) types were discovered. As is always the case, HPV-6 was very common. However, all the other frequently detected HPV types (45, 52, 53, 54, 58, 74) were more prevalent than the types typically reported forthe general population (HPV-11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 35). Notably, the 14 members of the A3 phylogenetic subgroup (HPV-61, 62, 72, 81, 83, 84, and all the new types) were by far the most frequently observed viral types in the AIDS cohort. The HPV prevalence in the cohorts of kidney transplantation candidates and recipients was only slightly lower than that in the AIDS cohort. We conclude that HPV infections are extraordinarily common and are normally held in a sub-clinical state by functional immune systems, but can be reactivated by immunosuppressive conditions. The question of how so many distinct types persist in the human population and can be repeatedly isolated from specimens collected around the world raises complex issues concerning the nature of viral transmission, reproduction, shedding, and mutational drift. These molecular epidemiological observations signal the likelihood that HPV is part of the commensal microflora of human epithelia. Their prevalence elicits a caution that latent HPV DNA may be present in primary human epithelial tissues.
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PMID:Viral latency--the papillomavirus model. 1176 Dec 60

Peptides derived from the interfacial region of dimeric HIV-1 integrase were evaluated as inhibitors of integrase's 3'-endonuclease activity. Three peptides were found to be moderately potent inhibitors with IC(50) values in the low micromolar range. The mode of inhibition was probed through protein crosslinking experiments. Active interfacial peptides were found to inhibit crosslinking of the dimeric form of integrase. Interfacial peptides that were poor inhibitors had no effect on integrase crosslinking.
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PMID:Interfacial peptide inhibitors of HIV-1 integrase activity and dimerization. 1264 37

We have partially reconstituted 20S proteasome/RNA complexes using oligonucleotides corresponding to ARE (adenosine- and uridine-rich element) (AUUUA)4 and HIV-TAR (human immunodeficiency virus-Tat transactivation response element), a stem-loop structure in the 5' UTR (untranslated region) of HIV-mRNAs. We demonstrate that these RNAs which associate with proteasomes are degraded by proteasomal endonuclease activity. The formation of these 20S proteasome/RNA substrate complexes is rather specific since 20S proteasomes do not interfere with truncated TAR that is not cleaved by proteasomal endonuclease. In addition, affinity of proteasomes for (AUUUA)4 is much stronger as it is for HIV-TAR. These results provide further arguments for our hypothesis that proteasomes could be involved in the destabilisation of cytokines mRNAs containing AUUUA sequences as well as viral mRNAs.
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PMID:Substrate affinity and substrate specificity of proteasomes with RNase activity. 1268 29

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase (IN) catalyzes the insertion of the viral genome into the host cell DNA, an essential reaction during the retroviral cycle. We described previously that expression of HIV-1 IN in some yeast strains may lead to the emergence of a lethal phenotype which was not observed when the catalytically crucial residues D, D, (35)E were mutated. The lethal effect in yeast seems to be related to the mutagenic effect of the recombinant HIV-1 IN, most probably via the non-sequence-specific endonucleolytic activity carried by this enzyme. This non-sequence-specific endonuclease activity was further characterized. Although the enzyme was active on DNA substrates devoid of viral long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences, the presence of LTR regions stimulated significantly this activity. Genetic experiments were designed to show that both the mutagenic effect and the level of recombination events were affected in cells expressing the active retroviral enzyme, while expression of the mutated inactive IN D116A has no significant effect. A close interaction was demonstrated between integrase activity and in vivo/in vitro recombination process, suggesting that retroviral integration and recombination mechanism are linked in the infected cell. Our results show that the yeast system is a powerful cellular model to study the non-sequence-specific endonucleolytic activity of IN. Its characterization is essential since this activity might represent a very important step in the retroviral infectious cycle and would provide further insights into the function of IN. Indeed, effectors of this activity should be sought as potential antiviral agents since stimulation of this enzymatic activity would induce the destruction of early synthesized proviral DNA.
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PMID:The lethal phenotype observed after HIV-1 integrase expression in yeast cells is related to DNA repair and recombination events. 1464 7

HIV-1 integrase (IN) catalyzes the integration of the proviral DNA into the cellular genome. The catalytic triad D64, D116 and E152 of HIV-1 IN is involved in the reaction mechanism and the DNA binding. Since the integration and substrate binding processes are not yet exactly known, we studied the role of amino acids localized in the catalytic site. We focused our interest on the V151E152S153 region. We generated random mutations inside this domain and selected mutated active INs by using the IN-induced yeast lethality assay. In vitro analysis of the selected enzymes showed that the IN nuclease activities (specific 3'-processing and non-sequence-specific endonuclease), the integration and disintegration reactions and the binding of the various DNA substrates were affected differently. Our results support the hypothesis that the three reactions may involve different DNA binding sites, enzyme conformations or mechanisms. We also show that the V151E152S153 region involvement in the integration reaction is more important than for the 3'-processing activity and can be involved in the recognition of DNA. The IN mutants may lead to the development of new tools for studying the integration reaction, and could serve as the basis for the discovery of integration-specific inhibitors.
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PMID:Biochemical and random mutagenesis analysis of the region carrying the catalytic E152 amino acid of HIV-1 integrase. 1499 95

microRNAs (miRNAs) are single-stranded, 21- to 23-nucleotide cellular RNAs that control the expression of cognate target genes. Primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) transcripts are transformed to mature miRNA by the successive actions of two RNase III endonucleases. Drosha converts pri-miRNA transcripts to precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA); Dicer, in turn, converts pre-miRNA to mature miRNA. Here, we show that normal processing of Drosophila pre-miRNAs by Dicer-1 requires the double-stranded RNA-binding domain (dsRBD) protein Loquacious (Loqs), a homolog of human TRBP, a protein first identified as binding the HIV trans-activator RNA (TAR). Efficient miRNA-directed silencing of a reporter transgene, complete repression of white by a dsRNA trigger, and silencing of the endogenous Stellate locus by Suppressor of Stellate, all require Loqs. In loqs(f00791) mutant ovaries, germ-line stem cells are not appropriately maintained. Loqs associates with Dcr-1, the Drosophila RNase III enzyme that processes pre-miRNA into mature miRNA. Thus, every known Drosophila RNase-III endonuclease is paired with a dsRBD protein that facilitates its function in small RNA biogenesis.
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PMID:Normal microRNA maturation and germ-line stem cell maintenance requires Loquacious, a double-stranded RNA-binding domain protein. 1591 70

Bacteriophage terminases are essential molecular motors involved in the encapsidation of viral DNA. They are hetero-multimers whose large subunit encodes both ATPase and endonuclease activities. Although the ATPase domain is well characterized from sequence and functional analysis, the C-terminal region remains poorly defined. We describe sequence-structure comparisons of the endonuclease region of various bacteriophages that revealed new sequence similarities shared by this region and the Holliday junction resolvase RuvC and to a lesser extent the HIV integrase and the ribonuclease H. Extensive sequence comparison and motif refinement led to a common signature of terminases and resolvases with three conserved acidic residues engaged in catalytic activity. Sequence analyses were validated by in vivo and in vitro functional assays showing that the nuclease activity of the endonuclease domain of bacteriophage T5 terminase was abolished by mutation of any of the three predicted catalytic aspartates. Overall, these data suggest that the endonuclease domains of terminases operate autonomously and that they adopt a fold similar to that of resolvases and share the same divalent cation-dependent enzymatic mechanism.
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PMID:The endonuclease domain of bacteriophage terminases belongs to the resolvase/integrase/ribonuclease H superfamily: a bioinformatics analysis validated by a functional study on bacteriophage T5. 1637 18

Recent observations imply that HIV-1 infection induces chromosomal DNA damage responses. However, the precise molecular mechanism and biological relevance are not fully understood. Here, we report that HIV-1 infection causes double-strand breaks in chromosomal DNA. We further found that Vpr, an accessory gene product of HIV-1, is a major factor responsible for HIV-1-induced double-strand breaks. The purified Vpr protein promotes double-strand breaks when incubated with isolated nuclei, although it does not exhibit endonuclease activity in vitro. A carboxyl-terminally truncated Vpr mutant that is defective in DNA-binding activity is less capable of Vpr-dependent double-strand break formation in isolated nuclei. The data suggest that double-strand breaks induced by Vpr depend on its DNA-binding activity and that Vpr may recruit unknown nuclear factor(s) with positive endonuclease activity to chromosomal DNA. This is the first direct evidence that Vpr induces double-strand breaks in HIV-1-infected cells. We discuss the possible roles of Vpr-induced DNA damage in HIV-1 infection and the involvement of Vpr in further acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related tumor development.
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PMID:HIV-1 Vpr induces DNA double-strand breaks. 1642 88

Small RNA-mediated gene silencing (RNA silencing) has emerged as a major regulatory pathway in eukaryotes. Identification of the key factors involved in this pathway has been a subject of rigorous investigation in recent years. In humans, small RNAs are generated by Dicer and assembled into the effector complex known as RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) by multiple factors including hAgo2, the mRNA-targeting endonuclease, and TRBP (HIV-1 TAR RNA-binding protein), a dsRNA-binding protein that interacts with both Dicer and hAgo2. Here we describe an additional dsRNA-binding protein known as PACT, which is significant in RNA silencing. PACT is associated with an approximately 500 kDa complex that contains Dicer, hAgo2, and TRBP. The interaction with Dicer involves the third dsRNA-binding domain (dsRBD) of PACT and the N-terminal region of Dicer containing the helicase motif. Like TRBP, PACT is not required for the pre-microRNA (miRNA) cleavage reaction step. However, the depletion of PACT strongly affects the accumulation of mature miRNA in vivo and moderately reduces the efficiency of small interfering RNA-induced RNA interference. Our study indicates that, unlike other RNase III type proteins, human Dicer may employ two different dsRBD-containing proteins that facilitate RISC assembly.
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PMID:The role of PACT in the RNA silencing pathway. 1642 7

Uracil is usually an inappropriate base in DNA, but it is also a normal intermediate during somatic hypermutation (SHM) and class switch recombination (CSR) in adaptive immunity. In addition, uracil is introduced into retroviral DNA by the host as part of a defence mechanism. The sources of uracil in DNA are spontaneous or enzymatic deamination of cytosine (U:G mispairs) and incorporation of dUTP (U:A pairs). Uracil in DNA is removed by a uracil-DNA glycosylase. The major ones are nuclear UNG2 and mitochondrial UNG1 encoded by the UNG-gene, and SMUG1 that also removes oxidized pyrimidines, e.g. 5-hydroxymethyluracil. The other ones are TDG that removes U and T from mismatches, and MBD4 that removes U from CpG contexts. UNG2 is found in replication foci during the S-phase and has a distinct role in repair of U:A pairs, but it is also important in U:G repair, a function shared with SMUG1. SHM is initiated by activation-induced cytosine deaminase (AID), followed by removal of U by UNG2. Humans lacking UNG2 suffer from recurrent infections and lymphoid hyperplasia, and have skewed SHM and defective CSR, resulting in elevated IgM and strongly reduced IgG, IgA and IgE. UNG-defective mice also develop B-cell lymphoma late in life. In the defence against retrovirus, e.g. HIV-1, high concentrations of dUTP in the target cells promotes misincorporation of dUMP-, and host cell APOBEC proteins may promote deamination of cytosine in the viral DNA. This facilitates degradation of viral DNA by UNG2 and AP-endonuclease. However, viral proteins Vif and Vpr counteract this defense by mechanisms that are now being revealed. In conclusion, uracil in DNA is both a mutagenic burden and a tool to modify DNA for diversity or degradation.
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PMID:DNA-uracil and human pathology. 1759 Apr 28


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