The non-tumor-promoting deoxyphorbol esters which activate PKC emerged as candidates for HIV-1 latent reservoir eradication from studies initially performed at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI investigated antiviral properties of several ethnobotanical compounds including the novel phorbol ester, prostratin. Prostratin had first been identified as a constituent of the poisonous New Zealand plant
Pimelea prostrata [
42]. As observed by the ethnobotanist, Paul Cox, prostratin was later detected in bark extracts from the plant,
Homalanthus nutans, used by native island tribesmen in Samoa as a remedy for jaundice [
43]. On this basis it was speculated to have antiviral properties. Initial investigations of the purified compound by NCI revealed that prostratin inhibited infectious viral spread but readily upregulated latent HIV-1 from the quiescently infected cell lines, ACH2 and U1 [
44,
45]. Prior to the introduction of HAART, there was little interest in further investigating an agent that would produce additional virus from within the cells of HIV-1-infected patients.
The view for prostratin's utility evolved with the subsequent advent of HAART. HAART potently prevents viral spread, presumably including any virus that could subsequently be expressed from latent proviral DNA. Consequently, prostratin was proposed as a candidate for adjuvant therapy in conjunction with HAART to eradicate the latent reservoir via cellular activation without the danger of viral spread or latent reservoir reseeding [
46]. Importantly, early studies clearly indicated that prostratin and other non-tumor-promoting phorbol esters, including 12-deoxyphorbol-13-phenylacetate (DPP), readily reactivated latent virus from primary HIV-1-infected patient resting T cells [
20,
46–
48]. This same ability has been demonstrated more recently with lactone analogues of DAG that also serve as PKC-modulating agents [
21,
40].
Of interest is the differential targeting of PKC isoforms by phorbol esters versus certain synthetic or natural DAG analogue lactones. For example, the induction of latent HIV-1 is mediated by the sequential action of PKC
α and PKC
θ isoforms in PMA or prostratin-treated T cells [
49] while bryostatin-1 treatment accomplishes reactivation through PKC
α and PKC
δ [
21].
The outcome of PKC isoform activation or modulation by phorbol esters and structurally related agents occurs downstream via transduction through at least the ERK1/ERK2 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway [
50]. As shown in , this pathway stimulates IKK-dependent phosphorylation and degradation of I
κB
α, leading to activation of NF-
κB [
50,
51]. As shown in , free NF-
κB is then competent for translocation and binding to sites in the enhancer region of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR). The binding of NF-
κB to the LTR is required for high-level transcription of HIV-1 RNA and upregulation in the expression of latent reservoir virus. NF-
κB upregulation of latent proviral DNA in reservoir cells is synergized by the stimulation of the activator protein-1 (AP-1). AP-1 activity is stimulated through JNK and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways which is triggered upstream by PKC action [
50,
51]. As shown in , the transcription factors AP-1, as well as SP-1, which recognizes GC-rich sequences, have their binding sites located in the HIV-1 LTR enhancer region. It is likely that NF-
κB, AP-1, and Sp-1 are cooperative toward accomplishing robust expression of latent viral reservoirs; however, Nf-
κB appears to be the central mediator for latent provirus expression [
51–
53]. An ancillary activity of PKC activation is the phosphorylation of Tat, a virally encoded accessory protein required for transcript elongation to produce full-length HIV-1 RNAs [
54].