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Updated: May 27, 2026

Evaluation of the Efficacy And Toxicity of RNAs Targeting HIV-1 Production for Use in Gene or Drug Therapy
Published on: September 5, 2016
Different effects of the TAR structure on HIV-1 and HIV-2 genomic RNA translation
Ricardo Soto-Rifo1, Taran Limousin, Paulina S Rubilar
1INSERM U758, Lyon F-69364, France.
Abstract:
The 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) of the genomic RNA of human immunodeficiency viruses type-1 (HIV-1) and type-2 (HIV-2) is composed of highly structured RNA motifs essential for viral replication that are expected to interfere with Gag and Gag-Pol translation. Here, we have analyzed and compared the properties by which the viral 5'-UTR drives translation from the genomic RNA of both human immunodeficiency viruses. Our results showed that translation from the HIV-2 gRNA was very poor compared to that of HIV-1. This was rather due to the intrinsic structural motifs in their respective 5'-UTR without involvement of any viral protein. Further investigation pointed to a different role of TAR RNA, which was much inhibitory for HIV-2 translation. Altogether, these data highlight important structural and functional differences between these two human pathogens.
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