Stable and Conserved G-Quadruplexes in the Long Terminal Repeat Promoter of Retroviruses.

ABSTRACT: Retroviruses infect almost all vertebrates, from humans to domestic and farm animals, from primates to wild animals, where they cause severe diseases, including immunodeficiencies, neurological disorders, and cancer. Nonhuman retroviruses have also been recently associated with human diseases. To date, no effective treatments are available; therefore, finding retrovirus-specific therapeutic targets is becoming an impelling issue. G-Quadruplexes are four-stranded nucleic acid structures that form in guanine-rich regions. Highly conserved G-quadruplexes located in the long-terminal-repeat (LTR) promoter of HIV-1 were shown to modulate the virus transcription machinery; moreover, the astonishingly high degree of conservation of G-quadruplex sequences in all primate lentiviruses corroborates t

SUBMITTER: Ruggiero E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6630527 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature