Retrovirus Restriction in Primates and the Discovery of TRIMCyp. Este artículo no está disponible.Retrovirus Restriction in Primates and the Discovery of TRIMCyp

Cells derived from numerous primate species are known to resist HIV-1 infection, a finding that had limited the development of non-human primate models of AIDS. In recent years, several studies suggested that many primate-derived cell lines possess dominant factors that block infection by various retroviruses. In the work described here, one of these factors was identified as a protein named TRIM-Cyp. In addition to its potent ability to interfere with HIV infection, TRIM-Cyp also represents an important mechanism in the formation of new genes - it is a hybrid between two unrelated genes, created by the activity of a retrotransposon. TRIM-Cyp, and other TRIM5 proteins in various primates, are important determinants of retrovirus tropism, and reveal a great deal about the evolutionary arms race between retroviruses and their hosts.

David Sayah is currently a resident physician in San Francisco. The research described here was completed while he was a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City.