Inhibition of HIV early replication by the p53 and its downstream gene p21.

Background: The tumor suppressor gene p53 has been found to suppress HIV infection by various mechanisms, but the inhibition of HIV at an early stage of replication by host cell p53 and its downstream gene p21 has not been well studied.

Method: VSV-G pseudotyped HIV-1 or HIV-2 viruses with GFP or luciferase reporter gene were used to infect HCT116 p53 cells, HCT116 p53 cells and hMDMs. The infections were detected by flow cytometry or measured by luciferase assay.