FIG. 3.

Rapamycin inhibits basal HIV-1 long terminal repeat activity and minimally affects Tat-mediated long terminal repeat transactivation. Freshly isolated primary human CD4⁺ T lymphocytes (10⁵) were transiently transfected with pLTRX-Luc or cotransfected with pLTRX-Luc and pCEP4-Tat. Cells were then either left untreated or treated with phorbol myristate acetate/ionophore (PMA/iono, 20 ng/ml and 1 μM, respectively) or rapamycin (RAPA, 1.1 nM). Cells were incubated at 37°C for 24 h and then lysed for monitoring luciferase activity. Results shown are the means ± standard deviation of quadruplicate samples and are representative of at least three independent experiments.