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MDPI, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 4(22), p. 1588, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/ijms22041588

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HIV-1 Tat Activates Akt/mTORC1 Pathway and AICDA Expression by Downregulating Its Transcriptional Inhibitors in B Cells

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

HIV-1 infects T cells, but the most frequent AIDS-related lymphomas are of B-cell origin. Molecular mechanisms of HIV-1-induced oncogenic transformation of B cells remain largely unknown. HIV-1 Tat protein may participate in this process by penetrating and regulating gene expression in B cells. Both immune and cancer cells can reprogram communications between extracellular signals and intracellular signaling pathways via the Akt/mTORC1 pathway, which plays a key role in the cellular response to various stimuli including viral infection. Here, we investigated the role of HIV-1 Tat on the modulation of the Akt/mTORC1 pathway in B cells. We found that HIV-1 Tat activated the Akt/mTORC1 signaling pathway; this leads to aberrant activation of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA) due to inhibition of the AICDA transcriptional repressors c-Myb and E2F8. These perturbations may ultimately lead to an increased genomic instability and proliferation that might cause B cell malignancies.