Proviral latency, transcriptional activation, and CD4 downregulation during human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection

Productive infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and other retroviruses requires stable integration of the provirus into the host cell genetic material as a normal step of the replicative cycle. Once integrated, the virus may immediately exploit the resources of the cellular environment to replicate vigorously until the death of the cell, ensuring the continued survival of viral progeny over time. In other cases proviral genomes may remain dormant for periods of time, briefly or indefinitely, if the cellular environment is somehow not optimal for viral replication. In this thesis, I have investigated some of the issues involved in the maintenance of proviral latency and defined two distinct mechanisms of latency in chronically infected cell lines. I have asked how viral activation by a specific set of transcription factors called NF-...