HIV-1 Tat protein concomitantly down-regulates apical caspase-10 and up-regulates c-FLIP in lymphoid T cells: A potential molecular mechanism to escape TRAIL cytotoxicity.

In this study, we showed the existence of a positive correlation between the amount of HIV-1 RNAin HIV-1 seropositive subjects and the plasma levels of TRAIL and investigated the effect of Tat on the expression/activity of both apical caspase-8 and -10 and c-FLIP. Taken together, these results provide a molecular basis to explain the resistance of tat-expressing Jurkat cells to apoptosis induced by TRAIL and, possibly, to other death-inducing ligands.