The promoter of human T-cell leukemia virus type-I is repressed by the
immediate-early gene region of human cytomegalovirus in primary blood
lymphocytes
RB Gartenhaus, F Wong-Staal and ME Klotman
Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Infection with human T-cell leukemia virus type-I (HTLV-1) is associated
with a low incidence of morbidity in the form of adult T- cell leukemia as
well as neurologic disease, including tropical spastic
paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy, suggesting that there are other
important factors which determine outcome of infection. HTLV-I and the
human herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus (HCMV), have both been shown to infect
OKT4+ T lymphocytes in vitro as well as in vivo. We investigated the
effects of expression of HCMV IE-2 protein(s) on the HTLV-I long terminal
repeat (LTR) containing the promoter elements in T- cell lines and primary
lymphocytes. A consistent repressive effect was observed on HTLV-I
LTR-driven chloramphenicol acetyl transferase activity after cotransfection
with the HCMV IE-2 gene region, both in HTLV-I-producing cell lines as well
as in uninfected primary peripheral blood lymphocytes and cloned lymphocyte
lines. This repressive effect on the HTLV-I LTR by the HCMV IE-2 gene
product(s) represent a unique interaction between two viruses capable of
infecting the same target cell in vivo. Such an interaction may have
important implications for disease expression associated with HTLV-I
infection.
Volume 78,
Issue 11,
pp. 2956-2961,
12/01/1991
Copyright © 1991 by The American Society of Hematology
