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Marina Lusic

@marinalusic.bsky.social

1.3K followers 632 following 62 posts

PI @ CIID, Heidelberg, and @DZIF. Mom of two and scientist in love with nuclear architecture - NPC- RNA processing, metabolic switches in infected immune blood and brain cells 🧬🔬🧬🦠🧫

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Lab life and Christmas cookies can match when the students get creative

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

AQR knock out in primary T cells hampers integration efficiency and shifts remaining integration to intergenic and R-loop–depleted regions, demonstrating that R-loop-rich sites are preferred by HIV-1 and are facilitated by host RNA metabolism.

Integration sites in AQR KO in Primary CD4 T cells

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

RNA helicase Aquarius (AQR), a component of the Intron Binding Complex (IBC), is an essential host factor for R-loop integration, as it unwinds R-loops and interacts with integrase to facilitate precise targeting of the viral genome.

Co-immunoprecipitation and in vitro binding assays of AQR and IN

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

We demonstrate that HIV-1 integrase binds directly to R-loops, suggesting that the RNA component of chromatin acts as a guiding signal — effectively a molecular “bait” — for integration.

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Our study, conducted in primary human CD4+ T cells, shows that HIV-1 preferentially integrates into intronic regions of transcriptionally active genes, where RNA:DNA hybrids (R-loops) are often created.

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Our work "Aquarius helicase facilitates HIV-1 integration into R-loop enriched genomic regions" is out @natmicrobiol.nature.com, showing HIV-1 integration into R-loop genomic regions upon their resolution by cellular splicing helicase Aquarius (AQR) of the Intron Binding Complex (IBC)🧵.

scheme of integration into R-loops mediated by AQR helicase

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

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Marina Lusic @marinalusic.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

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