Translational Medical Research Commons^™

Dna Dependent Protein Kinase (Dna-Pk) Enhances Hiv Transcription By Promoting Rna Polymerase Ii Activity And Recruitment Of Transcription Machinery At Hiv Ltr., Sonia Zicari, Adhikarimayum Lakhikumar Sharma, Geetaram Sahu, Larisa Dubrovsky, Lin Sun, Han Yue, Tejaswi Jada, Alex Ochem, Gary Simon, Michael Bukrinsky, Mudit Tyagi

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Despite reductions in mortality from the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the presence of latent or transcriptionally silent proviruses prevents HIV cure/eradication. We have previously reported that DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) facilitates HIV transcription by interacting with the RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) complex recruited at HIV LTR. In this study, using different cell lines and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of HIV-infected patients, we found that DNA-PK stimulates HIV transcription at several stages, including initiation, pause-release and elongation. We are reporting for the first time that DNA-PK increases phosphorylation of RNAP II C-terminal domain (CTD) at serine …