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Naturally occurring variants of human T-cell leukemia virus type I Tax protein impair its recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and the transactivation function of Tax.

Abstract
There is a high degree of intraisolate sequence heterogeneity in the tax gene of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), although the sequence variation between patients is small compared with that of human immunodeficiency virus type 1. In the present study, we investigated whether naturally occurring amino acid substitutions changed the properties of the Tax protein in two respects: first, recognition of the protein by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), and second, the ability of the Tax protein to transactivate various promoters. We found that (i) all of the observed amino acid substitutions that occur in known CTL epitopes abolished the recognition of the synthetic peptide representing the respective epitope; (ii) these substitutions occurred significantly more frequently in subjects carrying HLA-A2; and (iii) most of the amino acid substitutions severely reduced the ability of Tax protein to transactivate three promoters: the HTLV-I long terminal repeat, the c-fos promoter, and the interleukin-2 receptor alpha chain promoter.
AuthorsS Niewiesk, S Daenke, C E Parker, G Taylor, J Weber, S Nightingale, C R Bangham
JournalJournal of virology (J Virol) Vol. 69 Issue 4 Pg. 2649-53 (Apr 1995) ISSN: 0022-538X [Print] United States
PMID7533860 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
Chemical References
  • Epitopes
  • Gene Products, tax
  • HLA-A2 Antigen
Topics
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Epitopes (genetics)
  • Gene Products, tax (genetics, metabolism)
  • Genes, fos
  • Genetic Variation
  • HLA-A2 Antigen (genetics)
  • Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (genetics)
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic (metabolism)
  • Transcriptional Activation

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