Molecular Mechanisms of HIV Latency

 描述：整合后病毒潜伏期是根除HIV-1感染的主要障碍。目前消除病毒库的理论范式被称为“休克和杀死”，即使用非靶标小分子重新激活潜伏病毒。这一方法的关键障碍最近已经出现，例如低效和/或随机的病毒重新激活，避免全球T细胞激活，以及重新激活时有限的细胞死亡。同样明显的是，我们对艾滋病毒潜伏期的分子机制的了解是零散的，特别是滥用药物与艾滋病毒潜伏期的启动和维持的相关性。在这里，我们建议在基因组水平上探索调节HIV潜伏期建立和维持的细胞因素的图景，以及它们与滥用药物的关系。我们的探索将基于验证最近完成的基因组规模shRNA筛查，以寻找控制潜伏期维持和重新激活的基因。我们建议使用新的CRISPR-Cas9技术来扩大这一筛选，该技术基于通过引导RNA融合蛋白来靶向激活(CRISRa)或抑制(CRISPRi)基因表达。这些筛选将重点放在mTOR途径和甲基苯丙胺上，因为我们最近发现的证据表明，它们可能独立地或共同作用，调节潜伏的艾滋病毒的重新激活。我们将验证并机械地探索原始CD4T细胞和HIV感染患者细胞中的途径和其他最高命中率。我们还建议进一步开发和利用新的双荧光报告HIV-1基因组来识别、量化和纯化处于自然状态的潜伏感染细胞，而不会导致病毒重新激活。这一新的延迟模型将允许我们 研究滥用药物，特别是甲基苯丙胺对原代人类淋巴细胞潜伏期的建立和维持的影响，并研究艾滋病毒-1潜伏期建立的最早机制。通过将我们的双标记潜伏期模型的力量与高分辨率单细胞系统生物学技术相结合，我们非常适合绘制出控制艾滋病毒潜伏期的细胞调控网络以及滥用药物在这一过程中的作用。

 DESCRIPTION: Post-integration viral latency is a major barrier to eradicating HIV-1 infection. The current theoretical paradigm for eliminating the viral reservoir is known as `Shock and Kill', reactivation of latent virus using non-targeted small molecules. Key hurdles to this approach have recently emerged such as inefficient and/or stochastic viral reactivation, avoidance of global T-cell activation, and limited cellular death upon re-activation. It is also becoming apparent that our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of HIV latency are fragmentary and in particular the relevance of drugs of abuse on the initiation and maintenance of HIV latency. Here, we propose to explore on a genomic scale the landscape of cellular factors that regulate HIV latency establishment and maintenance and their relationship to drugs of abuse. Our exploration will be based on validating a recently completed genome scale shRNA screen for genes that control latency maintenance and reactivation. We propose to expand this screen using the novel CRISPR-Cas9 technology based on targeting via a guide RNA fusion proteins that either activate (CRISRa) or inhibit (CRISPRi) gene expression. These screens will focus on the mTOR pathway and on methamphetamine as we have recently uncovered evidence that they may act independently or together to modulate the reactivation of latent HIV. We will validate and mechanistically explore both pathways and other top hits in primary CD4 T cells and in cells from HIV-infected patients. We also propose to further develop and exploit new dual-fluorescence reporter HIV-1 genomes to identify, quantify, and purify latently infected cells in their native state, without inducing viral reactivation. This new latency model will allow us to study the effect of drugs of abuse, particularly methamphetamine, on the establishment and maintenance of latency in primary human lymphoid cells and to study the very earliest mechanisms of HIV-1 latency establishment. By combining the power of our dual-labeled latency model with high-resolution single-cell systems-biology techniques, we are uniquely suited to map out the cellular regulatory networks that control HIV latency and the role of drugs of abuse in this process.