Possible origin of murine AIDS (MAIDS) virus: conversion of an endogenous retroviral p12gag sequence to a MAIDS-inducing sequence by frameshift mutations

Abstract

The murine AIDS (MAIDS) virus has a unique sequence in its p12 gag region, which is responsible for MAIDS development. A transcript hybridizing with this sequence is expressed in normal C57BL/6 mice. The transcript, designated Edv, has been previously cloned and sequenced (Y.

Competitive PCR for Quantification of BM5d Proviral DNA in Mice with AIDS

“…This syndrome has many similarities to human AIDS (8,17). During our studies of BM5d integration in infected C57BL/6 mice (3), and in other reports (4,10,11), the presence of multiple p12-related endogenous sequences in the genomes of uninfected mice was demonstrated. Southern hybridization assay proved that these sequences hybridized strongly with a p12 gag gene-specific probe (D30) (1).…”

“…For this purpose, total RNA (5) was extracted from the lymph nodes of an infected C57BL/6 mouse and cDNA synthesis was performed with the cDNA cycle kit (Invitrogen, San Diego, Calif.), using a 3Ј-specific primer corresponding to positions 1579 to 1596 of the BM5d genome (4, 6). The following amplification reaction, performed under the same conditions reported elsewhere (10), produced a 141-bp amplified product (positions 1456 to 1596 in the BM5d genome; GenBank accession no. M64096), which was cloned into the pMOSBlue vector (Amersham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom).…”

On viruses, sex, and motherhood

“…The in vivo selection for Sag production by a Sag-defective endogenous MMTV to allow milk-borne infection has been observed and could be an example of such selection from an endogenous MMTV provirus (21). Also, the radiation-induced generation of the murine AIDS virus complex from a mutated endogenous retroviral p12 gag in the C57Bl/6J mouse is another possible example of autonomous virus generation from endogenous virus (43,44). A similar proposal could also apply to the possible generation of the HIV env gene from HIV-like endogenous EHS-2 sequences that are unique to primates (35), suggesting the existence of an interesting dynamic relationship between virus and host in which the host can be a genetic source for generation of new virus.…”

Morphine-potentiated cognitive deficits correlate to suppressed hippocampal iNOS RNA expression and an absent type 1 interferon response in LP-BM5 murine AIDS

“…rat transgenic, HIV-Tat models), which ubiquitously express inflammatory HIV proteins throughout the brain, LP-BM5 enters from the periphery, leading to regional differences in viral load akin to those observed in HIV patients (Wiley 1998). Similar to HIV-1, LP-BM5 primarily targets glia within the CNS, not neurons (Gardner and Luciw, 1989; Kubo et al, 1996; Sei et al, 1998). LP-BM5 viral proteins have been observed within both astrocytes and microglia cultured from infected mice (Sei et al, 1992).…”