RETROVIRAL RESTRICTION FACTORS

Next to our efforts to advance a rabbit model for HIV infection, we, the VIIRAL lab, want to study restriction factors and their relevance in different animal models.

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We use Murine Leukemia Virus (MLV), a simple retrovirus, to study retroviral infection and its restriction in a more physiological setting without the necessity for increased safety precautions.

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One of the factors our group has been interested in for the last years is Serine Incorporator 5 (SERINC5). This mammalian membrane protein has been shown to negatively affect HIV infectivity in the absence of the HIV accessory protein Nef (Pereira et al., 2019; Kriesel et al., 2020). Following up on this, we are investigating the effect of SERINC5 orthologs on MLV, both in the presence and absence of MLV GlycoGag that has already been shown to overcome SERINC5-imposed restriction in Nef deficient HIV (Pereira et al., 2019).