scholarly journals Modulation of Cellular and Viral Gene Expression by the Latency-Associated Nuclear Antigen of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 458-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf Renne ◽  
Chris Barry ◽  
Dirk Dittmer ◽  
Nicole Compitello ◽  
Patrick O. Brown ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), also called human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), is the likely etiological agent of Kaposi's sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma. Common to these malignancies is that tumor cells are latently infected with KSHV. Viral gene expression is limited to a few genes, one of which is the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA), the product of ORF73. Examination of the primary sequence of LANA reveals some structural features reminiscent of transcription factors, leading us to hypothesize that LANA may regulate viral and cellular transcription during latency. In reporter gene-based transient transfection assays, we found that LANA can have either positive or negative effects on gene expression. While expression of a reporter gene from several synthetic promoters was increased in the presence of LANA, expression from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) long terminal repeat (LTR)—and from NF-κB-dependent reporter genes—was reduced by LANA expression. In addition, the promoter of KSHV ORF73 itself is activated up to 5.5-fold by LANA. This autoregulation may be important in tumorigenesis, because two other genes (v-cyclin and v-FLIP) with likely roles in cell growth and survival are also controlled by this element. To identify cellular genes influenced by LANA, we employed cDNA array-based expression profiling. Six known genes (and nine expressed sequence tags) were found to be upregulated in LANA-expressing cell lines. One of these, Staf-50, is known to inhibit expression from the HIV LTR; most of the other known genes are interferon inducible, although the interferon genes themselves were not induced by LANA. These data demonstrate that LANA expression has effects on cellular and viral gene expression. We suggest that, whether direct or indirect in origin, these effects may play important roles in the pathobiology of KSHV infection.

2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (17) ◽  
pp. 7882-7892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Garber ◽  
Marla A. Shu ◽  
Jianhong Hu ◽  
Rolf Renne

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is associated with Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and multicentric Castleman's disease. The latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) is highly expressed in these malignancies and has been shown to play an important role in episomal maintenance, presumably by binding to a putative oriP. In addition, LANA modulates cellular and viral gene expression and interacts with the cellular tumor suppressors p53 and retinoblastoma suppressor protein. Many of these features are reminiscent of Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigens (EBNAs), a family of six proteins expressed during latency. EBNA-1 is required for episome maintenance, binds to oriP, and strongly activates transcription from two promoters, including its own. We have previously shown that LANA can transactivate its own promoter and therefore asked whether LANA, like EBNA-1, activates transcription by direct binding to DNA. By using recombinant LANA expressed from vaccinia virus vectors for electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we found that LANA does not bind to its own promoter. In contrast, LANA binds specifically to sequences containing an imperfect 20-bp palindrome in the terminal repeat (TR) of KSHV. We further show that the C-terminal domain of LANA is sufficient for site-specific DNA binding. Unlike EBNA-1, which activates transcription through binding of oriP, we found that LANA inhibits transcription from a single TR binding site. A multimerized TR as found in the viral genome results in strong transcriptional suppression when linked to a heterologous promoter. These data suggest that LANA, although fulfilling functions similar to those of EBNA-1, does so by very different mechanisms.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 2055-2067 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousang Gwack ◽  
Hwa Jin Baek ◽  
Hiroyuki Nakamura ◽  
Sun Hwa Lee ◽  
Michael Meisterernst ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT An important step in the herpesvirus life cycle is the switch from latency to lytic reactivation. The RTA transcription activator of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) acts as a molecular switch for lytic reactivation. Here we demonstrate that KSHV RTA recruits CBP, the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, and the TRAP/Mediator coactivator into viral promoters through interactions with a short acidic sequence in the carboxyl region and that this recruitment is essential for RTA-dependent viral gene expression. The Brg1 subunit of SWI/SNF and the TRAP230 subunit of TRAP/Mediator were shown to interact directly with RTA. Consequently, genetic ablation of these interactions abolished KSHV lytic replication. These results demonstrate that the recruitment of CBP, SWI/SNF, and TRAP/Mediator complexes by RTA is the principal mechanism to direct well-controlled viral gene expression and thereby viral lytic reactivation.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hesser ◽  
John Karijolich ◽  
Dan Dominissini ◽  
Chuan He ◽  
Britt Glaunsinger

AbstractMethylation at theN6position of adenosine (m6A) is a highly prevalent and reversible modification within eukaryotic mRNAs that has been linked to many stages of RNA processing and fate. Recent studies suggest that m6A deposition and proteins involved in the m6A pathway play a diverse set of roles in either restricting or modulating the lifecycles of select viruses. Here, we report that m6A levels are significantly increased in cells infected with the oncogenic human DNA virus Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Transcriptome-wide m6A-sequencing of the KSHV-positive renal carcinoma cell line iSLK.219 during lytic reactivation revealed the presence of m6A across multiple kinetic classes of viral transcripts, and a concomitant decrease in m6A levels across much of the host transcriptome. However, we found that depletion of the m6A machinery had differential pro- and anti-viral impacts on viral gene expression depending on the cell-type analyzed. In iSLK.219 and iSLK.BAC16 cells the pathway functioned in a pro-viral manner, as depletion of the m6A writer METTL3 and the reader YTHDF2 significantly impaired virion production. In iSLK.219 cells the defect was linked to their roles in the post-transcriptional accumulation of the major viral lytic transactivator ORF50, which is m6A modified. In contrast, although the ORF50 mRNA was also m6A modified in KSHV infected B cells, ORF50 protein expression was instead increased upon depletion of METTL3, or, to a lesser extent, YTHDF2. These results highlight that the m6A pathway is centrally involved in regulating KSHV gene expression, and underscore how the outcome of this dynamically regulated modification can vary significantly between cell types.Author SummaryIn addition to its roles in regulating cellular RNA fate, methylation at theN6position of adenosine (m6A) of mRNA has recently emerged as a mechanism for regulating viral infection. While it has been known for over 40 years that the mRNA of nuclear replicating DNA viruses contain m6A, only recently have studies began to examine the distribution of this modification across viral transcripts, as well as characterize its functional impact upon viral lifecycles. Here, we apply m6A-sequencing to map the location of m6A modifications throughout the transcriptome of the oncogenic human DNA virus Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). We show that the m6A machinery functions in a cell type specific manner to either promote or inhibit KSHV gene expression. Thus, the KSHV lifecycle is impacted by the m6A pathway, but the functional outcome may depend on cell lineage specific differences in m6A-based regulation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (21) ◽  
pp. 11134-11144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiliang Cai ◽  
Subhash C. Verma ◽  
Ji-Young Choi ◽  
Michelle Ma ◽  
Erle S. Robertson

ABSTRACT Cytokine-mediated JAK/STAT signaling controls numerous important biologic responses like immune function, cellular growth, and differentiation. Inappropriate activation of this signaling pathway is associated with a range of malignancies. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the infectious viral agent associated with Kaposi's sarcoma and may also contribute to B-cell disorders, which include primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and multicentric Castleman's disease. However, regulation of cytokine-mediated lymphocytic immune response by KSHV is not fully understood. In this report, we demonstrate that KSHV suppresses the interleukin-4 (IL-4)-stimulated immune response of B-lymphocyte activation and cell proliferation. Moreover, we show that the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) encoded by KSHV is essential for viral blocking of IL-4-induced signaling. LANA reduces phosphorylation of the signal transducers and activators of transcription 6 (STAT6) on Y-641 and concomitantly its DNA binding ability. Importantly, knockdown of endogenous STAT6 dramatically increases the sensitivity of PEL cells to low-serum stress or chemical-mediated cellular apoptosis and reactivation of KSHV from latent replication. Thus, these findings suggest that the IL-4/STAT6 signaling network is precisely controlled by KSHV for survival, maintenance of latency, and suppression of the host cytokine immune response of the virus-infected cells.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 429-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Rivas ◽  
Ai-En Thlick ◽  
Carlo Parravicini ◽  
Patrick S. Moore ◽  
Yuan Chang

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), or human herpesvirus 8, is associated with three proliferative diseases ranging from viral cytokine-induced hyperplasia to monoclonal neoplasia: multicentric Castleman's disease (CD), Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Here we report a new latency-associated 1,704-bp KSHV spliced gene belonging to a cluster of KSHV sequences having homology to the interferon regulatory factor (IRF) family of transcription factors. ORFK10.5 encodes a protein, latency-associated nuclear antigen 2 (LANA2), which is expressed in KSHV-infected hematopoietic tissues, including PEL and CD but not KS lesions. LANA2 is abundantly expressed in the nuclei of cultured KSHV-infected B cells. Transcription of K10.5 in PEL cell cultures is not inhibited by DNA polymerase inhibitors nor significantly induced by phorbol ester treatment. Unlike LANA1, LANA2 does not elicit a serologic response from patients with KS, PEL, or CD as measured by Western blot hybridization. Both KSHV vIRF1 (ORFK9) and LANA2 (ORFK10.5) appear to have arisen through gene duplication of a captured cellular IRF gene. LANA2 is a potent inhibitor of p53-induced transcription in reporter assays. LANA2 antagonizes apoptosis due to p53 overexpression in p53-null SAOS-2 cells and apoptosis due to doxorubicin treatment of wild-type p53 U2OS cells. While LANA2 specifically interacts with amino acids 290 to 393 of p53 in glutathione S-transferase pull-down assays, we were unable to demonstrate LANA2-p53 interaction in vivo by immunoprecipitation. These findings show that KSHV has tissue-specific latent gene expression programs and identify a new latent protein which may contribute to KSHV tumorigenesis in hematopoietic tissues via p53 inhibition.


1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 8309-8315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Dittmer ◽  
Michael Lagunoff ◽  
Rolf Renne ◽  
Katherine Staskus ◽  
Ashley Haase ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Infection with Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is closely associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) and primary effusion lymphoma, with viral genomes present in a latent state in the majority of tumor cells. Here we describe a cluster of latently expressed viral genes whose mRNAs are generated from a common promoter. Two mRNAs in this region encode the latency-associated nuclear antigen, the product of open reading frame 73 (ORF73). The larger RNA, of 5.8 kb, is an unspliced transcript that includes ORF72 and -71 at its 3′ end; it initiates at nucleotides (nt) 127880 to 127886 from a promoter lacking recognizable TATA elements. A less abundant mRNA, of 5.4 kb, is a variant of this transcript, in which 336 nt of 5′ noncoding information has been removed by RNA splicing. A third, more abundant RNA is generated from the same promoter region via splicing from the common splice donor at nt 127813 to an acceptor 5′ to ORF72; this transcript is the presumed mRNA for ORF72, which encodes the viral cyclin D homolog. All three RNAs are 3′ coterminal. In situ hybridization analysis with probes that can detect all three transcripts shows that the RNAs are detectable in a large fraction of BCBL-1 cells prior to lytic induction and in >70% of KS spindle cells in primary KS tumors. This confirms that these transcripts are indeed latent RNAs and suggests a role for their products in viral persistence and/or KSHV-associated proliferation.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 891-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Jenner ◽  
M. Mar Albà ◽  
Chris Boshoff ◽  
Paul Kellam

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV; human herpesvirus 8) is associated with three human tumors, Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), and multicentric Castleman's disease. KSHV encodes a number of homologs of cellular proteins involved in the cell cycle, signal transduction, and modulation of the host immune response. Of the virus complement of over 85 open reading frames (ORFs), the expression of only a minority has been characterized individually. We have constructed a nylon membrane-based DNA array which allows the expression of almost every ORF of KSHV to be measured simultaneously. A PEL-derived cell line, BC-3, was used to study the expression of KSHV during latency and after the induction of lytic replication. Cluster analysis, which arranges genes according to their expression profile, revealed a correlation between expression and assigned gene function that is consistent with the known stages of the herpesvirus life cycle. Furthermore, latent and lytic genes thought to be functionally related cluster into groups. The correlation between gene expression and function also infers possible roles for KSHV genes yet to be characterized.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document