Background: Retroviruses rely on host factors for cell entry, replication, transcription, and other major steps during their life cycle. Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) is well known for utilizing a plethora of strategies to evade the host immune response, including the establishment of latent infection within a subpopulation of susceptible cells. HIV-1 also manipulates cellular factors in latently infected cells and persists for long periods of time, despite the presence of successful highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Results: In this study we demonstrate that Nuclear Factor-IB (NF-IB) is induced during HIV-1 infection and its expression negatively impacts viral replication. During HIV-1 infection in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and the T cell line, Jurkat or during induction of virus replication in latently infected cells, ACH2 and J1.1, we observed a time-dependent alteration in NF-IB expression pattern that correlated with HIV-1 viral expression. Using the Chip assay, we observed an association of NF-IB with the long terminal repeat region of HIV-1 (LTR) (-386 to -453 nt), and this association negatively correlated with HIV-1 transcription. Furthermore, knock-down of NF-IB levels in J1.1 cells resulted in an increase of HIV-1 levels. Knock-down of NF-IB levels in J-Lat-Tat-GFP (A1), (a Jurkat cell GFP reporter model for latent HIV-1 infection) resulted in an increase in GFP levels, indicating a potential negative regulatory role of NF-IB in HIV-1 replication.
Conclusion: Overall, our results suggest that NF-IB may play a role in intrinsic antiretroviral defenses against HIV-1. These observations may offer new insights into the correlation of the latently infected host cell types and HIV-1, and help to define new therapeutic approaches for triggering the switch from latency to active replication thereby eliminating HIV-1 latent infection.