Browsing by Author "Karn, Jonathan"

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    Epigenetic Silencing of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Transcription by Formation of Restrictive Chromatin Structures at the Viral Long Terminal Repeat Drives the Progressive Entry of HIV into Latency
    (Journal of virology, 2008) Pearson, Richard; Kyeung Kim, Young; Hokello, Joseph; Lassen, Kara; Friedman, Julia; Tyagi, Mudit; Karn, Jonathan
    The molecular mechanisms utilized by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to enter latency are poorly understood. Following the infection of Jurkat T cells with lentiviral vectors that express Tat in cis, gene expression is progressively silenced. Silencing is greatly enhanced when the lentiviral vectors carry an attenuated Tat gene with the H13L mutation. Individual clones of lentivirus-infected cells showed a wide range of shutdown rates, with the majority showing a 50% silencing frequency between 30 to 80 days. The silenced clones characteristically contained a small fraction (0 to 15%) of activated cells that continued to express d2EGFP. When d2EGFP and d2EGFP cell populations were isolated from the shutdown clones, they quickly reverted to the original distribution of inactive and active cells, suggesting that the d2EGFP cells arise from stochastic fluctuations in gene expression. The detailed analysis of transcription initiation and elongation using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays confirms that Tat levels are restricted in the latently infected cells but gradually rise during proviral reactivation. ChIP assays using clones of latently infected cells demonstrate that the latent proviruses carry high levels of deacetylated histones and trimethylated histones. In contrast, the cellular genes I B and GAPDH had high levels of acetylated histones and no trimethylated histones. The levels of trimethylated histone H3 and HP1- associated with HIV proviruses fell rapidly after tumor necrosis factor alpha activation. The progressive shutdown of HIV transcription following infection suggests that epigenetic mechanisms targeting chromatin structures selectively restrict HIV transcription initiation. This decreases Tat production below the levels that are required to sustain HIV gene expression.
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    T-Cell Receptor Signaling Enhances Transcriptional Elongation from Latent HIV Proviruses by Activating P-TEFb through an ERK-Dependent Pathway
    (Journal of molecular biology, 2011) Kyeung Kim, Young; Mbonye, Uri; Hokello, Joseph; Karn, Jonathan
    Latent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) proviruses are thought to be primarily reactivated in vivo through stimulation of the T-cell receptor (TCR). Activation of the TCR induces multiple signal transduction pathways, leading to the ordered nuclear migration of the HIV transcription initiation factors NF-κB (nuclear factor κB) and NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T-cells), as well as potential effects on HIV transcriptional elongation. We have monitored the kinetics of proviral reactivation using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays to measure changes in the distribution of RNA polymerase II in the HIV provirus. Surprisingly, in contrast to TNF-α (tumor necrosis factor α) activation, where early transcription elongation is highly restricted due to rate-limiting concentrations of Tat, efficient and sustained HIV elongation and positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) recruitment are detected immediately after the activation of latent proviruses through the TCR. Inhibition of NFAT activation by cyclosporine had no effect on either HIV transcription initiation or elongation. However, examination of P-TEFb complexes by gel-filtration chromatography showed that TCR signaling led to the rapid dissociation of the large inactive P-TEFb:7SK RNP (small nuclear RNA 7SK ribonucleoprotein) complex and the release of active low-molecular-weight P-TEFb complexes. Both P-TEFb recruitment to the HIV long terminal repeat and enhanced HIV processivity were blocked by the ERK (extracellular-signalregulated kinase) inhibitor U0126, but not by AKT (serine/threonine protein kinase Akt) and PI3K (phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase) inhibitors. In contrast to treatment with HMBA (hexamethylene bisacetamide) and DRB (5,6-dichlorobenzimidazole 1-β-ribofuranoside), which disrupt the large 7SK RNP complex but do not stimulate early HIV elongation, TCR