Endoribonucleolytic cleavage of RNA: oligodeoxynucleotide hybrids by the ribonuclease H activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase.

Endoribonucleolytic cleavage by the ribonuclease H activity associated with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase was observed in vitro using substrates consisting of synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides hybridized to a 345 nucleotide T7 RNA polymerase transcript derived from the gag region of HIV-1. This observation suggests that a possible mechanism of action of antisense oligonucleotides in the inhibition of viral replication and expression may involve the selective "suicidal" ribonucleolytic cleavage of viral RNA by reverse transcriptase at the site of hybridization of the oligonucleotide.