Inhibition of HIV-1 replication and reactivation from latency by tat transdominant negative mutants in the cysteine rich region

Tat mutants (tat22, tat37 and tat22/37) were constructed in the transactivation domain, where cysteines at positions 22 or/and 37 were substituted with glycine and serine, respectively. These mutants were expressed either in a BK virus episomal vector or in the retroviral vector LXSN. Constitutive production of tat22 by Jurkat T cells in the context of both vectors blocked HIV-1 replication during lytic infection. Conversely, the tat37 mutant did not show any inhibitory activity and tat22/37 displayed a mild effect on HIV-1 infection only when expressed by the recombinant retrovirus. However, constitutive production of tat22/37 by the BK virus vector in Jurkat T cells chronically infected by HIV-1 was effective in blocking reactivation of viral replication induced by tumor necrosis factor-alpha or human herpesvirus-6. These results suggest that mutants in the transactivation domain of tat may be considered in designing alternative strategies to control HIV-1 replication and reactivation from latency during different phases of infection.