Publications

Title: CBF-1 Promotes the Establishment and Maintenance of HIV Latency by Recruiting Polycomb Repressive Complexes, PRC1 and PRC2, at HIV LTR
Author(s): Adhikarimayum Lakhikumar Sharma, Joseph Hokello, Shilpa Sonti, Sonia Zicari, Lin Sun, Aseel Alqatawni1, Michael Bukrinsky, Gary Simon, Ashok Chauhan, Rene Daniel and Mudit Tyagi
Year 2020
Publisher: Viruses 2020, 12, 1040; doi:10.3390/v12091040
URI: https://publications.kiu.ac.ug/publication-page.php?i=cbf-1-promotes-the-establishment-and-maintenance-of-hiv-latency-by-recruiting-polycomb-repressive-complexes-prc1-and-prc2-at-hiv-ltr
File: PDF
Keywords: HIV-1; latency; epigenetics; CBF-1; PRC1; PRC2; chromatin; transcription

The C-promoter binding factor-1 (CBF-1) is a potent and specific inhibitor of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 LTR promoter. Here, we demonstrate that the knockdown of endogenous CBF-1 in latently infected primary CD4+ T cells, using specific small hairpin RNAs (shRNA), resulted in the reactivation of latent HIV proviruses. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays using latently infected primary T cells and Jurkat T-cell lines demonstrated that CBF- 1 induces the establishment and maintenance of HIV latency by recruiting polycomb group (PcG/PRC) corepressor complexes or polycomb repressive complexes 1 and 2 (PRC1 and PRC2). Knockdown of CBF-1 resulted in the dissociation of PRCs corepressor complexes enhancing the recruitment of RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) at HIV LTR. Knockdown of certain components of PRC1 and PRC2 also led to the reactivation of latent proviruses. Similarly, the treatment of latently infected primary CD4+ T cells with the PRC2/EZH2 inhibitor, 3-deazaneplanocin A (DZNep), led to their reactivation.