HIV may produce inhibitory microRNAs (miRNAs) that block production of CD28, CD4 and some interleukins

It is well-known that HIV-1 infection results in a gradual decline of the CD4+ T-lymphocytes, but the underlying mechanism of this decline is not completely understood. Research has shown that HIV-1 infection of CD4+ T cells results in decreased CD28 expression, but the mechanism of this repression is unknown. There is also substantial evidence demonstrating regulatory involvement of microRNA (miRNA) during protein expression in plants and some animals, and reports have recently been published confirming the existence of viral-encoded miRNAs. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that viral-encoded miRNA from HIV-1 may directly alter T cell, macrophage and dendritic cell activity. To investigate a potential correlation between the genomic complementarity of HIV-1 and host cell protein expression, a local alignment search was performed to assess for regions of complementarity between the HIV-1 proviral genome and the mRNA coding sequence of various proteins expressed by CD+ T cells and macrophages. Regions of complementarity with strong correlations to the currently established criteria for miRNA:target mRNA activity were found between HIV-1 and CD28, CTLA-4 and some interleukins, suggesting that HIV-1 may produce translational repression in host cells.