Disease relevance of tat

• Eight Mamu-A*01-positive Indian rhesus macaques were vaccinated with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) gag, tat, rev, and nef using a DNA prime-adenovirus boost strategy [1].
• Mice were injected with lethal doses of B16 melanoma cells expressing the corresponding MAGE antigens or the unrelated protein SIV tat, and tumor development and survival were monitored [2].
• Phylogenetic Analysis of env, gag, and tat Genes of HIV Type 1 Detected among the Injecting Drug Users in West Bengal, India [3].
• HIV tat is the transactivator of HIV-1, supporting efficient viral replication by stabilizing the transcription of viral genes [4].
• In the brain, tat induces neuronal dysfunction/toxicity, even though neurons cannot be directly infected with HIV, resulting in CNS pathology, such as the dementia and encephalitis associated with NeuroAIDS [4].

Psychiatry related information on tat

• In this study, we tested for antibody reactivities against gp120 and gp41-derived peptides, recombinant gp160, gp41 and tat in HIV-positive sera under antiretroviral therapy (ART) and determined their neutralization capacity [5].

High impact information on tat

• Macaques were immunized monthly with DNA vaccines expressing either SIV gag/tat or SIV gag/tat and 19 CD8+ T cell epitopes during 7 months of therapy [6].
• In the absence of tat, modification of the R region had only minor effects on cytoplasmic RNA stability, steady-state levels of vector RNA and packaging, consistent with the known primary function of R during reverse transcription [7].
• RESULTS: Upon the binding of tat to the second promoter, the HIV2 long terminal repeat amplifies downstream gene expression of the therapeutic cytokine GM-CSF [8].
• We show that a tat-ovalbumin conjugate (tatOVA) can be delivered into cells and that subsequent processing and presentation occurs, resulting in effective and specific killing of these target cells by an OVA specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) line [9].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of tat

• These data indicate that in parallel to the decrease in viral load and antibodies against gp120, the neutralization capacity of sera under ART is reduced, and can not be compensated by an increase in tat-specific antibodies [5].

References