HIV-1 induces RNA silencing.(RESEARCH)(Brief Article)

HIV-1 elicits RNA silencing in human cells, but it also contains a sequence that suppresses the process, according to researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Nucleic acid-based immunity in mammalian cells has been found before, but to date, there has been no single report of a natural small interfering RNA [siRNA] that is triggered by HIV in human cells," says coauthor Kuan-Teh Jeang. He adds that the virus' "counter strategy" is also unprecedented.

Jeang, Yamina Bennasser, and colleagues characterized a sequence in the HIV-1 genome that encodes a rare siRNA precursor: a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that is processed by the Dicer (or by …