In this report, we demonstrate the sequence-specific suppression of viral expression in T cells chronically infected with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), using antisense phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides. As a target for antisense intervention, we used the HIV-1 gene rev, which is essential for viral replication and regulates the expression of virion proteins, in part, by affecting the splicing of the viral mRNA. A phosphorothioate oligomer complementary to the initiation sequence of HIV-1 rev had a significant and selective inhibitory effect on the production of several viral proteins in chronically HIV-1-infected T cells and drastically reduced the unspliced (genomic) viral mRNA transcripts, with relative sparing of smaller (spliced) transcripts. By contrast, the antisense sequence with unmodified normal phosphodiester linkages as well as phosphorothioate oligomers containing sense, random, homopolymeric sequences, or antisense sequence with N3-methylthymidine residues did not have an inhibitory effect on viral expression. Thus, sequence specificity and nuclease resistance were critical for the anti-viral-gene regulatory effect of the antisense molecules. The altered HIV-1 mRNA profile induced by the antisense phosphorothioate oligomer suggests that the mechanism for the inhibition of viral expression is due to an interference with the regulatory gene, rev, by translation arrest.
Base Sequence Cells, Cultured