Figure 2.

Model for the role of TRBP during the early steps of viral infection. A) HIV co-opts the RNAi pathway for its own benefit. After the uncoating steps, the viral RNA is released in the cytoplasm. The TRBP-Dicer complex binds to viral and cellular RNAs and cleaves small dsRNAs that inhibit PKR. B) HIV diverts TRBP from Dicer to avoid the cleavage of its RNA. The viral RNA released in the cytoplasm binds TRBP, which becomes unavailable for interaction with Dicer. The schematic representation of HIV-1 genomic RNA includes the 5' and 3' TAR RNAs, the RRE RNA, the vsiRNA and other potential stem-loop structures.