Specific Destruction of HIV Proviral p17 Gene in T Lymphoid Cells Achieved by the Genome Editing Technology

Recent development in genome editing technologies has enabled site-directed deprivation of a nucleotide sequence in the chromosome in mammalian cells. Human immunodeficiency (HIV) infection causes integration of proviral DNA into the chromosome, which potentially leads to re-emergence of the virus, but conventional treatment cannot delete the proviral DNA sequence from the cells infected with HIV. In the present study, the transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) specific for the HIV p17 gene were constructed, and their activities to destroy the target sequence were evaluated. SSA assay showed a high activity of a pair of p17-specific TALENs. A human T lymphoid cell line, Jurkat, was infected with a lentivirus vector followed by transfection with the TALEN-HIV by electroporation. The target sequence was destructed in approximately 10-95% of the p17 polymerase chain reaction clones, and the efficiencies depended on the Jurkat-HIV clones. Because p17 plays essential roles for assembly and budding of HIV, and this gene has relatively low nucleotide sequence diversity, genome editing procedures targeting p17 may provide a therapeutic benefit for HIV infection.