{"doi":"10.3389/fimmu.2021.669241","title":"Epigenetic Regulation of BST-2 Expression Levels and the Effect on HIV-1 Pathogenesis","abstract":"HIV-1 must overcome host antiviral restriction factors for efficient replication. We hypothesized that elevated levels of bone marrow stromal cell antigen 2 ( BST-2 ), a potent host restriction factor that interferes with HIV-1 particle release in some human cells and is antagonized by the viral protein Vpu, may associate with viral control. Using cryopreserved samples, from HIV-1 seronegative and seropositive Black women, we measured in vitro expression levels of BST-2 mRNA using a real-time PCR assay and protein levels were validated by Western blotting. The expression level of BST-2 showed an association with viral control within two independent cohorts of Black HIV infected females (r=-0.53, p=0.015, [n =21]; and r=-0.62, p=0.0006, [n=28]). DNA methylation was identified as a mechanism regulating BST-2 levels, where increased BST-2 methylation results in lower expression levels and associates with worse HIV disease outcome. We further demonstrate the ability to regulate BST-2 levels using a DNA hypomethylation drug. Our results suggest BST-2 as a factor for potential therapeutic intervention against HIV and other diseases known to involve BST-2 .","journal":"Frontiers in Immunology","year":2021,"id":190869,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9563,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":479757,"name":"Veron Ramsuran","orcid":"0000-0003-1590-9893","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292648,"name":"Vivek Naranbhai","orcid":"0000-0003-4281-8882","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":463290,"name":"Nonhlanhla Yende‐Zuma","orcid":"0000-0002-3708-8611","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":331062,"name":"Nigel Garrett","orcid":"0000-0002-4530-234X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":426666,"name":"Koleka Mlisana","orcid":"0000-0002-8436-3268","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252000,"name":"Krista L. Dong","orcid":"0000-0002-2038-3518","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":108341,"name":"Bruce D. Walker","orcid":"0000-0001-6122-9245","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385888,"name":"Salim S. Abdool Karim","orcid":"0000-0002-4986-2133","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":37727,"name":"Mary Carrington","orcid":"0000-0002-2692-2180","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252002,"name":"Thumbi Ndung’u","orcid":"0000-0003-2962-3992","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385886,"name":"Ravesh Singh","orcid":"0000-0002-0407-4635","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":57,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:31.121780Z","pmid":"34025670","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}