Artificial nucleases containing Rev-coupled metal chelates based on combinations of the transition metals Fe(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), and Cu(2+) and the chelators DOTA, DTPA, EDTA, NTA, tripeptide GGH, and tetrapeptide KGHK have been tested for DNA nuclease activity. Originally designed to target reactive transition metal chelates (M-chelates) to the HIV-1 Rev response element mRNA, attachment to t...

Although the viral Rev protein is necessary for HIV replication, its main function in the viral replication cycle has been controversial. Reinvestigating the effect of Rev on the HIV-1 RNA distribution in various cell lines and primary cells revealed that Rev enhanced cytoplasmic levels of the unspliced HIV-1 RNA, mostly 3- to 12-fold, while encapsidation of the RNA and viral infectivity could ...

OBJECTIVES The objective of the present study was to compare the efficacy of gentamicin given alone or combined with doxycycline with that of standard combination therapies in BALB/c mice experimentally infected with the Brucella melitensis vaccine strain Rev 1. METHODS A standard broth microdilution method was applied to determine the susceptibility of strain Rev 1 to the clinically most rel...

The circular dichroism (CD) spectrum of the Rev protein from HIV-1 indicates that Rev contains about 50% alpha helix and 25% beta sheet at 5 degrees C in potassium phosphate buffer, pH 3, and 300 mM KF. The spectrum is independent of protein concentration over a 20-fold range. At neutral pH, Rev is relatively insoluble but can be brought into solution by binding to its specific RNA binding site...

Post-transcriptional regulation of HIV-1 gene expression is largely governed by the activities of the viral Rev protein. In this minireview, the multiple post-transcriptional activities of Rev in the export of partially spliced and unspliced HIV-1 RNAs from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, in the translation of HIV-1 transcripts, and in the packaging of viral genomic RNAs are reviewed in brief.

Flat revertants with reduced malignancy in vivo can be isolated from Kirsten sarcoma virus-transformed NIH 3T3 cells (DT line) following transfection with a normal human fibroblast cDNA expression library. We have recovered from one such revertant a 1.8-kb cDNA clone, K-rev-1, that exhibits an activity of inducing flat revertants at certain frequencies (2-5% of total transfectants) when transfe...

This paper introduces JNCC2, the Java implementation of the Naive Credal Classifier 2 (NCC2). JNCC2 is open source; it is hence freely available together with manual, sources and javadoc documentation. NCC2 is an extension of Naive Bayes Classifier (NBC) to imprecise probabilities, designed so as to return robust classifications even on small and/or incomplete data sets. A peculiar feature of N...

The HIV-1 Rev protein is responsible for shuttling partially spliced and unspliced viral mRNA out of the nucleus. This is a crucial step in the HIV-1 lifecycle, thus making Rev an attractive target for the design of anti-HIV drugs. Despite its importance, there is a lack of structural, biophysical, and quantitative information about Rev. This is mainly because of its tendency to undergo self-as...

We describe a novel interaction between HIV-1 Rev and microtubules (MTs) that results in the formation of bilayered rings that are 44-49 nm in external diameter, 3.4-4.2 MD (megadaltons) in mass, and have 28-, 30-, or 32-fold symmetry. Ring formation is not sensitive to taxol, colchicine, or microtubule-associated proteins, but requires Mg(2+) and is inhibited by maytansine. The interaction inv...