This is a novel regulatory mechanism of progesterone action, which could be involved in protecting pregnant women with FH-1 against hypertension. In vitro, both enzymes showed comparable kinetic parameters, but P505-15 ASWT was more strongly inhibited than ASCE. This study implicates a new role for progesterone in the regulation of aldosterone levels that could contribute, along with other factors, to the maintenance of an adequate aldosterone-progesterone balance in pregnancy.”
“Background: HIV-1 DNA is found both integrated in the host chromosome and unintegrated in various forms: linear (DNA(L)) or circular (1-LTRc,

2-LTRc or products of auto-integration). Here, based on pre-established strategies, we extended and characterized in terms of sensitivity two methodologies for quantifying 1-LTRc and DNA(L), respectively, the latter being able to discriminate between unprocessed or 3′-processed DNA.

Results: Quantifying different types of viral DNA genome individually provides new information about the dynamics of all viral DNA forms and their interplay. For DNA(L), we found that the 3′-processing reaction was efficient during the early stage of the replication cycle. Moreover, strand-transfer inhibitors (Dolutegravir, Elvitegravir, Raltegravir) affected 3′-processing differently. The comparisons of 2-LTRc accumulation

learn more mediated by either strand-transfer inhibitors or catalytic mutation of integrase indicate that 3′-processing efficiency did not influence the total 2-LTRc

Baf-A1 mouse accumulation although the nature of the LTR-LTR junction was qualitatively affected. Finally, a significant proportion of 1-LTRc was generated concomitantly with reverse transcription, although most of the 1-LTRc were produced in the nucleus.

Conclusions: We describe the fate of viral DNA forms during HIV-1 infection. Our study reveals the interplay between various forms of the viral DNA genome, the distribution of which can be affected by mutations and by inhibitors of HIV-1 viral proteins. In the latter case, the quantification of 3′-processed DNA in infected cells can be informative about the mechanisms of future integrase inhibitors directly in the cell context.”
“Background: The transactivating response (TAR) element of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the source of two functional microRNAs (miRNAs), miR-TAR-5p and miR-TAR-3p. The objective of this study was to characterize the post-transcriptional regulation of host messenger RNAs (mRNAs) relevant to HIV-1 pathogenesis by HIV-1 TAR miRNAs.

Results: We demonstrated that TAR miRNAs derived from HIV-1 can incorporate into host effector Argonaute protein complexes, which is required if these miRNAs are to regulate host mRNA expression.