A simple feedback resistor switch keeps latent HIV from awakening

User rating: 4.8 / 5 after 9 vote(s)

HIV Tat transactivates its own expression but this requires conv ersion from deacetylated Tat (TatD) to acetylated Tat (TatA) a reaction that establishes a feedback resistor and allows the circuit to shut off. Credit: Image: Weinberger et al.
HIV Tat transactivates its own expression, but this requires conv ersion from deacetylated Tat (TatD) to acetylated Tat (TatA), a reaction that establishes a feedback resistor and allows the circuit to shut off. Credit: Image: Weinberger et al.

Upon entering a cell, a virus often becomes dormant, turning off its genes and laying low until awakened by som e trigger from its environment. When that trigger is pulled, the virus quickly ramps up production of proteins through built-in positive-feedback loops that turn up gene transcription. (In positive feedback, production of something stimulates more production of that thing, resulting in exponential, or faster, growth.) If the viral environment were perfectly regulated and viral gene expression perfectly silenced during latency, this system would be foolproof.


Full story »
All News summaries from Medicine & Health news
All News summaries for December 26, 2006
Goto Archive PhysOrg Forum Goto Archive Video Goto Archive Editorials Goto Archive Free Magazines Goto Archive Newsletter

News Archive