Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein (LMP1) induces specific NFκB complexes in human T-lymphoid cells

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein (LMP1) is believed to play a crucial role in oncogenesis mediated by this virus. We and others previously showed that LMP1 can induce NF kappa B activity in several non-lymphoid cells and B-lymphoid cell lines. Here we show that LMP1 is also able to efficiently induce NF kappa B in human T-lymphoid and monocytic cells. Specific NF kappa B complexes were detected in the nuclei of transfected Jurkat cells using gel mobility shift assays and Western blot analyses; Using antibodies, we demonstrated that these complexes contain NF kappa B subunits NFkB1, NFkB2, RelA and c-Rel. Our results also showed that the NF kappa B complexes induced by LMP1 are able to bind to the NF kappa B consensus sequence in the promoter of the interleukin-2 alpha receptor gene and induce expression from a minimal promoter linked to four tandem copies of this sequence. This suggests a possible mechanism by which LMP1 could induce T-cell activation and proliferation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.