Detection of SARS-CoV-2-Specific Humoral and Cellular Immunity in COVID-19 Convalescent IndividualsHighlights d SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies are detected in COVID-19 convalescent subjects d Most COVID-19 convalescent individuals have detectable neutralizing antibodies d Cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 are found in COVID-19 convalescent subjects d Neutralization antibody titers correlate with the numbers of virus-specific T cells.
The HIV-1 Tat protein regulates transcription elongation through binding to the viral TAR RNA stem-loop structure. We have isolated a novel 87 kDa cyclin C-related protein (cyclin T) that interacts specifically with the transactivation domain of Tat. Cyclin T is a partner for CDK9, an RNAPII transcription elongation factor. Remarkably, the interaction of Tat with cyclin T strongly enhances the affinity and specificity of the Tat:TAR RNA interaction, and confers a requirement for sequences in the loop of TAR that are not recognized by Tat alone. Moreover, overexpression of human cyclin T rescues Tat activity in nonpermissive rodent cells. We propose that Tat directs cyclin T-CDK9 to RNAPII through cooperative binding to TAR RNA.
DR3 is a death domain-containing receptor that is upregulated during T cell activation and whose overexpression induces apoptosis and NF-kappaB activation in cell lines. Here we show that an endothelial cell-derived TNF-like factor, TL1A, is a ligand for DR3 and decoy receptor TR6/DcR3 and that its expression is inducible by TNF and IL-1alpha. TL1A induces NF-kappaB activation and apoptosis in DR3-expressing cell lines, while TR6-Fc protein antagonizes these signaling events. Interestingly, in T cells, TL1A acts as a costimulator that increases IL-2 responsiveness and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines both in vitro and in vivo. Our data suggest that interaction of TL1A with DR3 promotes T cell expansion during an immune response, whereas TR6 has an opposing effect.
HIV-1 Tat activates transcription through binding to human cyclin T1, a regulatory subunit of the TAK/P-TEFb CTD kinase complex. Here we show that the cyclin domain of hCycT1 is necessary and sufficient to interact with Tat and promote cooperative binding to TAR RNA in vitro, as well as mediate Tat transactivation in vivo. A Tat:TAR recognition motif (TRM) was identified at the carboxy-terminal edge of the cyclin domain, and we show that hCycT1 can interact simultaneously with Tat and CDK9 on TAR RNA in vitro. Alanine-scanning mutagenesis of the hCycT1 TRM identified residues that are critical for the interaction with Tat and others that are required specifically for binding of the complex to TAR RNA. Interestingly, we find that the interaction between Tat and hCycT1 requires zinc as well as essential cysteine residues in both proteins. Cloning and characterization of the murine CycT1 protein revealed that it lacks a critical cysteine residue (C261) and forms a weak, zinc-independent complex with HIV-1 Tat that greatly reduces binding to TAR RNA. A point mutation in mCycT1 (Y261C) restores high-affinity, zinc-dependent binding to Tat and TAR in vitro, and rescues Tat transactivation in vivo. Although overexpression of hCycT1 in NIH3T3 cells strongly enhances transcription from an integrated proviral promoter, we find that this fails to overcome all blocks to productive HIV-1 infection in murine cells.
The 3C-like proteinase of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus has been proposed to be a key target for structural-based drug design against SARS. In order to understand the active form and the substrate specificity of the enzyme, we have cloned, expressed, and purified SARS 3C-like proteinase. Analytic gel filtration shows a mixture of monomer and dimer at a protein concentration of 4 mg/ml and mostly monomer at 0.2 mg/ml, which correspond to the concentration used in the enzyme assays. The linear decrease of the enzymatic-specific activity with the decrease of enzyme concentration revealed that only the dimeric form is active and the dimeric interface could be targeted for structural-based drug design against SARS 3C-like proteinase. By using a high pressure liquid chromatography assay, SARS 3C-like proteinase was shown to cut the 11 peptides covering all of the 11 cleavage sites on the viral polyprotein with different efficiency. The two peptides corresponding to the two self-cleavage sites are the two with highest cleavage efficiency, whereas peptides with non-canonical residues at P2 or P1 positions react slower. The P2 position of the substrates seems to favor large hydrophobic residues. Secondary structure studies for the peptide substrates revealed that substrates with more -sheetlike structure tend to react fast. This study provides a basic understanding of the enzyme catalysis and a full substrate specificity spectrum for SARS 3C-like proteinase, which are helpful for structural-based inhibitor design against SARS and other coronavirus.The outbreak of a severe atypical pneumonia in early 2003 has caused 8422 cases and 916 related deaths. The World Health Organization has designated the illness as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).1 A novel form of coronavirus has been identified as the major cause of SARS (1, 2). The genome of SARS coronavirus has been sequenced within a short period of time after confirmation of the virus (3, 4). Currently, 23 genome sequences of different variations of SARS coronavirus have been released at the NCBI web site (www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/). Coronaviruses are members of positive-stranded RNA viruses featuring the largest viral RNA genomes up to date. The SARS coronavirus replicase gene encompasses two overlapping translation products, polyproteins 1a (ϳ450 kDa) and 1ab (ϳ750 kDa), which are conserved both in length and amino acid sequence to other coronavirus replicase proteins. Polyproteins 1a and 1ab are cleaved by the internally encoded 3C-like proteinase to release functional proteins necessary for virus replication. The SARS 3C-like proteinase is fully conserved among all of the released SARS coronavirus genome sequences and is highly homologous with other coronavirus 3C-like proteinase.Two crystal structures of coronavirus 3C-like proteinase from transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) (5) and human coronavirus (hCoV) 229E have been solved (6). The structure of coronavirus 3C-like proteinase contains three domains. The first two domains form ...
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