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. 2011 Mar 14;121(4):1549–1560. doi: 10.1172/JCI44539

Figure 5. p21 inhibition increases multiple early HIV-1 replication steps.

Figure 5

(A–C) Quantitative analysis of HIV-1 LRT transcripts (A), integrated HIV-1 DNA (B), and HIV-1 mRNA transcripts (C) in CD4+ T cells from elite controllers or HIV-1–negative persons after inhibition of p21. Activated CD4+ T cells were infected with X4- or R5-tropic HIV-1 isolates after electroporation with p21-specific or control siRNA. Alternatively, activated or nonactivated CD4+ T cells were infected with a single-cycle VSV-G–pseudotyped HIV-1 vector in the presence of a small molecule inhibitor of p21 or DMSO as control. Data show mean and SD fold increase of respective copy numbers in p21-deficient cells compared with corresponding control cells from the indicated number of subjects. *P < 0.05; p21 deficient cells versus control cells treated with unspecific siRNA or SMSO; paired Wilcoxon test. (D) Effect of p21 inhibition on HIV-1 mRNA transcription from proviral HIV-1 DNA. Ex vivo activated CD4+ T cells from elite controllers were infected with a VSV-G–pseudotyped HIV-1 vector; YFP+ cells were sorted after 36 hours and exposed to p21 inhibitor. Data are mean and SD of LRT transcripts, integrated HIV-1 DNA, and viral mRNA from sorted YFP+ CD4+ T cells 84 hours after infection. Statistical comparison was performed using paired Wilcoxon test.