For decades scientists have recognized that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a formidable viral pathogen. After years of probing work and extensive experimentation, a Yale research team has unlocked one of the reasons why that is.
In a new study, the lab led by immunologist Grace Chen discovered that HIV produces a circular RNA (circRNA) that helps the virus turn on its genes and replicate more efficiently. The discovery, which the researchers dubbed "circHIV," could represent a new target for future HIV therapies.
The findings, described in the journal Nature Microbiology, follow a long journey for Chen, an assistant professor of immunobiology and of genetics at Yale School of Medicine. Her lab studies circRNAs, which differ from typical or linear RNAs in that they lack distinct, functional "ends." Unlike linear RNA, loop-shaped circRNAs are very stable.
Chen began this project in 2019 with Prisca Obi, who at the time was her graduate student, and Lichong Yan, an associate research scientist and postdoc, who are the study's co-first authors. Given HIV's genetic makeup, Chen thought it would be a likely candidate to be generating circRNAs. She was right.
