Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers
10:28

Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers

Published on: September 20, 2018

Recruitment of chromatin-modifying enzymes by CTIP2 promotes HIV-1 transcriptional silencing

Céline Marban1, Stella Suzanne, Franck Dequiedt

  • 1INSERM unité 575 Pathophysiology of Nervous System, Centre de Neurochimie, Strasbourg, France.

The EMBO Journal
|January 25, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Coup-TF interacting protein 2 (CTIP2) silences latent HIV-1 in microglial cells by forming heterochromatin. This involves recruiting histone deacetylases and methyltransferases, offering potential therapeutic targets for latent HIV-1 reservoirs.

Area of Science:

  • Virology
  • Epigenetics
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Latent HIV-1 persists in a transcriptionally silent state, often within heterochromatic regions of host genomes.
  • Microglial cells are key targets for HIV-1 in the central nervous system and serve as a viral reservoir.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of Coup-TF interacting protein 2 (CTIP2) in establishing heterochromatin and silencing HIV-1 in microglial cells.
  • To identify the specific molecular mechanisms by which CTIP2 mediates HIV-1 latency.

Main Methods:

  • Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays to detect protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions.
  • Histone deacetylase (HDAC) and histone methyltransferase activity assays.
  • Analysis of histone modifications (acetylation and methylation) at the HIV-1 promoter.

Main Results:

  • CTIP2 recruits HDAC1 and HDAC2 to the HIV-1 promoter, leading to histone H3 deacetylation.
  • CTIP2 also recruits SUV39H1, a histone methyltransferase, to the HIV-1 promoter, increasing H3 lysine 9 methylation.
  • These epigenetic modifications facilitate the formation of heterochromatin via HP1 protein recruitment, resulting in HIV-1 silencing.

Conclusions:

  • CTIP2 plays a critical role in establishing heterochromatin at the HIV-1 promoter in microglial cells, contributing to viral latency.
  • The recruitment of HDACs and SUV39H1 by CTIP2 are key events in HIV-1 gene silencing.
  • Targeting the CTIP2-mediated pathway presents a potential therapeutic strategy for eliminating latent HIV-1 reservoirs.

More Related Videos

Lentiviral Vector Platform for the Efficient Delivery of Epigenome-editing Tools into Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Disease Models13:47

Lentiviral Vector Platform for the Efficient Delivery of Epigenome-editing Tools into Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Disease Models

Published on: March 29, 2019

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to Assay Dynamic Histone Modification in Activated Gene Expression in Human Cells13:20

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to Assay Dynamic Histone Modification in Activated Gene Expression in Human Cells

Published on: July 29, 2010

Related Concept Videos

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation- ChIP02:36

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation- ChIP

Chromatin immunoprecipitation, or ChIP, is an antibody-based technique used to identify sites on DNA that bind to transcription factors of interest or histone proteins. It also helps determine the type of histone modifications such as acetylation, phosphorylation, or methylation.
Types of ChIP
ChIP can be divided into two types - X-ChIP and N-ChIP. X-ChIP involves in vivo cross-linking of histones and regulatory proteins to DNA, fragmenting the DNA by sonication, and isolating the protein-DNA...
Chromatin Modification in iPS Cells01:32

Chromatin Modification in iPS Cells

Chromatin modification alters gene expression; therefore, scientists can add histone-modifying enzymes, histone variants, and chromatin remodeling complexes to somatic cells to aid reprogramming into pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.
Compact chromatin makes reprogramming difficult. Enzymes, such as histone demethylases and acetyltransferases, are often added during reprogramming to loosen the chromatin, making the DNA more accessible to transcription factors. Molecules that inhibit histone...
Co-activators and Co-repressors02:04

Co-activators and Co-repressors

Gene transcription is regulated by the synergistic action of several proteins that form a complex at a gene regulatory site. This is observed in eukaryotes, where the regulation of gene expression is a complex process. Regulatory proteins in eukaryotes can broadly be classified into two types – regulators that bind directly to specific DNA sequences and co-regulators that associate with regulatory proteins but cannot directly bind to the DNA. These co-regulators are further divided into...
RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins02:36

RNA Polymerase II Accessory Proteins

Proteins that regulate transcription can do so either via direct contact with RNA Polymerase or through indirect interactions facilitated by adaptors, mediators, histone-modifying proteins, and nucleosome remodelers. Direct interactions to activate transcription is seen in bacteria as well as in some eukaryotic genes. In these cases, upstream activation sequences are adjacent to the promoters, and the activator proteins interact directly with the transcriptional machinery. For example, in...
Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors01:52

Eukaryotic Transcription Inhibitors

Certain biochemical processes, such as embryonic development and cell growth regulation, depend on the repression of specific genes. DNA binding proteins known as eukaryotic transcription inhibitors regulate the repression of gene expression in eukaryotes. The presence of these inhibitors at the required location and time in the cell is triggered by the presence of hormones and additional signals from other cells.
Eukaryotic transcription inhibitors usually contain two distinct domains, a DNA...
General Transcription Factors01:30

General Transcription Factors

Tissue-specific transcription factors contribute to diverse cellular functions in mammals. For example, the gene for beta globin, a major component of hemoglobin, is present in all cells of the body. However, it is only expressed in red blood cells because the transcription factors that can bind to the promoter sequences of the beta globin gene are only expressed in these cells. Tissue-specific transcription factors also ensure that mutations in these factors may impair only the function of...