Research

Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by small interfering RNAs directed against Glioma Pathogenesis Related Protein (GliPR) expression

Gianni Capalbo¹, Thea Müller-Kuller¹, Ursula Dietrich², Dieter Hoelzer¹, Oliver G Ottmann¹ and Urban J Scheuring^1*

• * Corresponding author: Urban J Scheuring u.scheuring@gmx.de

Author Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology/Oncology and Infectious Diseases, J. W. Goethe-University Hospital, Theodor Stern Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt/Main, Germany

² Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Biomedical Research, Paul-Ehrlich-Str. 42-44, 60596 Frankfurt/Main, Germany

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Retrovirology 2010, 7:26 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-7-26

Published: 31 March 2010

Abstract

Background

Previously, we showed that glioma pathogenesis related protein (GliPR) is induced in CEM T cells upon HIV-1 infection in vitro. To examine whether GliPR plays a role as HIV dependency factor (HDF), we tested the effect of GliPR suppression by siRNA on HIV-1 replication.

Results

Induction of GliPR expression by HIV-1 was confirmed in P4-CCR5 cells. When GliPR was suppressed by siRNA, HIV-1 replication was significantly reduced as measured by HIV-1 transcript levels, HIV-1 p24 protein levels, and HIV-1 LTR-driven reporter gene expression, suggesting that GliPR is a cellular co-factor of HIV-1. Microarray analysis of uninfected HeLa cells following knockdown of GliPR revealed, among a multitude of gene expression alterations, a down-regulation of syndecan-1, syndecan-2, protein kinase C alpha (PRKCA), the catalytic subunit β of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PRKACB), nuclear receptor co-activator 3 (NCOA3), and cell surface protein CD59 (protectin), all genes having relevance for HIV-1 pathology.

Conclusions

The up-regulation of GliPR by HIV-1 and the early significant inhibition of HIV-1 replication mediated by knockdown of GliPR reveal GliPR as an important HIV-1 dependency factor (HDF), which may be exploited for HIV-1 inhibition.