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. 1990 Nov;87(22):8687–8691. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.22.8687

Tat-responsive region RNA of human immunodeficiency virus 1 can prevent activation of the double-stranded-RNA-activated protein kinase.

S Gunnery 1, A P Rice 1, H D Robertson 1, M B Mathews 1
PMCID: PMC55024  PMID: 2247437

Abstract

Transcription from the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 promoter gives rise to short cytoplasmic transcripts of approximately 60 nucleotides as well as to longer mRNAs. These RNAs contain the Tat-responsive region sequence, which is capable of assuming a stem-loop structure and has been implicated in the regulation of both transcription and translation. It has been reported that Tat-responsive region RNA inhibits translation in vitro through activation of an interferon-induced protein kinase, the double-stranded-RNA-activated inhibitor, which phosphorylates eukaryotic initiation factor 2. We show that the activation property is due to double-stranded RNA that often contaminates RNA synthesized in vitro using bacteriophage RNA polymerases. After purification, high concentrations of Tat-responsive region RNA inhibit the activation of double-stranded RNA-activated inhibitor, suggesting that it may serve to protect human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection from a cellular defense mechanism.

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