Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Determining 3'-Termini and Sequences of Nascent Single-Stranded Viral DNA Molecules during HIV-1 Reverse Transcription in Infected Cells
Published on: January 30, 2019
Restriction of retroviral replication by APOBEC3G/F and TRIM5alpha
Hendrik Huthoff1, Greg J Towers
1Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London SE1 9RT, UK.
Abstract:
Pathogenic viral infections have exerted selection pressure on their hosts to evolve cellular antiviral inhibitors referred to as restriction factors. Examples of such molecules are APOBEC3G, APOBEC3F and TRIM5alpha. APOBEC3G and APOBEC3F are cytidine deaminases that are able to strongly inhibit retroviral replication by at least two mechanisms. They are counteracted by the lentiviral Vif protein. TRIM5alpha binds to sensitive, incoming retroviruses via its C-terminal PRY/SPRY domain and rapidly recruits them to the proteasome before significant viral DNA synthesis can occur. Both of these proteins robustly block retroviral replication in a species-specific way. It remains an open but important question as to whether innate restriction factors such as these can be harnessed to inhibit HIV-1 replication in humans.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Inhibitors of Virion Maturation and Assembly
Inhibitors of Viral Protein Synthesis
Retroviruses
Antiviral Nucleoside Inhibitors
Inhibitors Of Virion Release
Retrovirus Life Cycles

