Siddiqui K, Del Valle L, Morellet N, Cui J, Ghafouri M, Mukerjee R, Urbanska K, Fan S, Pattillo CB, Deshmane SL, Kiani MF, Ansari R, Khalili K, Roques BP, Reiss K, Bouaziz S, Amini S, Srinivasan A, Sawaya BE. Molecular mimicry in inducing DNA damage between HIV-1 Vpr and the anticancer agent, cisplatin.
Oncogene 2007;
27:32-43. [PMID:
17653096 DOI:
10.1038/sj.onc.1210632]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) viral protein R (vpr) gene is an evolutionarily conserved gene among the primate lentiviruses. Several functions are attributed to Vpr including the ability to cause cell death, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and DNA damage. The Vpr domain responsible for DNA damage as well as the mechanism(s) through which Vpr induces this damage is unknown. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we identified the helical domain II within Vpr (aa 37-50) as the region responsible for causing DNA damage. Interestingly, Vpr Delta(37-50) failed to cause cell cycle arrest or apoptosis, to induce Ku70 or Ku80 and to suppress tumor growth, but maintained its capability to activate the HIV-1 LTR, to localize to the nucleus and to promote nonhomologous end-joining. In addition, our cytogenetic data indicated that helical domain II induced chromosomal aberrations, which mimicked those induced by cisplatin, an anticancer agent. This novel molecular mimicry function of Vpr might lead to its potential therapeutic use as a tumor suppressor.
Collapse