Study of the regulatory mechanism of EGR-1 expression in HTLV-1 virus Tax protein positive-T cells / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the expression of early growth response gene-1 (EGR-1) in T cells that were positive for Tax protein of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and its possible reg-ulatory mechanism .Methods A series of expression structures carrying the regulatory elements of EGR-1 in different length and luciferase reporter genes were constructed .TaxP cells were transfected with the con-structs containing reporter genes and cultured with 5μmol/L of NF-κB inhibitor BAY 11-7082 or equal vol-ume of DMSO.After cultured for 24 hours the cells were collected to test the luciferase activity .BAY 11-7082 or equal volume of DMSO was added into the supernatant of TaxP cell culture to test the expression of EGR-1 protein by Western blot after 24 hours of culture .Tax and its mutants M22 and M47 were transfected into 293 T cells respectively to test the expression of EGR-1 protein by Western blot after 24 hours of culture . Results The expression structures carrying the regulatory elements of EGR-1 in different length and their mutants followed by luciferase reporter genes were successfully constructed .The luciferase activity in the cells transfected with the constructs containing the elements E 1 and E2 were higher than that transfected with E3, DelE and MutE, but the reporter gene expressions were decreased with the interference of BAY 11-7082 (P<0.01).However, there were no significant changes with the luciferase activity in the cells transfected by elements E3, DelE and MutE.Western blot analysis indicated that the expression of EGR-1 protein was significantly decreased with the interference of BAY 10-7082 .The expression of EGR-1 protein in M22 mu-tants-transfected 293 T cells were decreased significantly in comparison with those by wild type tax-and M47-transfected cells .Conclusion NF-κB was the key nuclear factor in regulating the expression of EGR-1 pro-tein in Tax-positive T cells .