Inhibition of HIV-1 replication by retroviral vectors expressing monomeric and multimeric hammerhead ribozymes

Retroviral vectors were engineered to express monomeric and multimeric hammerhead ribozymes targeting one and nine highly conserved sites within the HIV-1 envelope (Env) coding region. In vitro, both the monomeric and multimeric ribozymes were shown to be active and cleave the target RNA containing the cleavage sites. A human CD4(+) T lymphocyte-derived MT4 cell line was stably transduced with retroviral vectors expressing these ribozymes. Ribozyme expression in stably transduced cells was confirmed by Northern blot analysis and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). As compared with the control cells lacking any ribozyme, HIV-1 replication was delayed in monomeric Rz(Env)-expressing cells. Virus replication was almost completely inhibited in multimeric Rz(Env1-9)-expressing cells as no viral RNA or protein could be detected in these cells and in their culture supernatants for up to 60 days after infection. The genomic DNA from Rz(Env1-9)-expressing cells was shown to contain HIV-1 proviral DNA sequences at days 3 and 60 after HIV infection. HIV-1 used in the challenge experiments was found to contain fully reverse transcribed '-' strand DNA which should have been able to infect, complete proviral DNA synthesis and integrate within the cellular genome without being affected by pre-existing ribozymes. Therefore, the proviral DNA present at day 3 after infection may have originated from infection by such DNA-containing virus particles. The results obtained with the retroviral vector expressing Rz(Env1-9) are very encouraging and we envisage its future use in anti-HIV-1 gene therapy.