HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (A2-YI9) – Immunology – Antigens/Epitotes/Pools/Librairies

HIV-1 replication is rapid and error prone which is beneficial to the virus as it allows mutations to arise that aid evasion of the host immune system and resistance to drug treatment. RT is the key target for most anti-HIV drugs and therefore conserved sequences are useful to aid further research into new less toxic antiviral treatments. HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) converts the RNA genome into DNA during retroviral replication. HIV-1 RT is a heterodimer composed of 2 subunits, p66 and p51. HIV-1 RT heterodimer has 2 enzymatic functions, DNA polymerase and Rnase H resulting in nucleic acid translation to a linear DNA duplex. Complete inhibition of viral replication is the only known method of preventing HIV-1 drug resistance and disease progression. HIV RT epitopes have become a useful research tool as an in vitro antigenic challenge to study cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to retroviruses. The HIV-1 RT A2-YI9 sequence has been shown to be an effective epitope for CTL recognition leading to lysis of HIV-infected T cells. The A2-YI9 is also considered a potential for vaccine development due to it being a well conserved sequence.