¹Terry Fox Molecular Oncology Group, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montreal Canada H3T 1E2

²Hamilton Regional Cancer Center, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

³Clinical Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Correspondence to: J Hiscott, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, 3755 Cote Ste. Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 1E2; E-mail: john.hiscott@mcgill.ca

The human T cell leukemia/lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-I) is the etiologic agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATL), an aggressive and fatal leukemia of CD4+ T lymphocytes. Interferon regulatory factor-4 (IRF-4) was shown previously to be constitutively expressed in T cells infected with HTLV-1. In this study, we investigated the role of IRF-4 gene regulation in the context of HTLV-1 infection using gene array technology and IRF-4 expressing T cells. Many potential IRF-4 regulated genes were identified, the vast majority of which were repressed by IRF-4 expression. Cyclin B1, a G2-M checkpoint protein identified as an IRF-4 repressed gene in the array, was further characterized in the context of HTLV-1 infection. All HTLV-1 infected cell lines and ATL patient lymphocytes demonstrated a dramatic decrease in cyclin B1 levels; subsequent analysis of the cyclin B1 promoter identified two sites important in IRF-4 binding and repression of cyclin B1 expression. Furthermore, IRF-4-mediated repression of cyclin B1 led to a significant decrease in CDC2 kinase activity in HTLV-1 infected T cells. IRF-4 expression in HTLV-1 infected T cells also downregulated other genes implicated in the mitotic checkpoint as well as genes involved in actin cytoskeletal rearrangement, DNA repair, apoptosis, metastasis and immune recognition. Several of the identified genes are dysregulated in ATL and may provide important mechanistic information concerning pathways critical to the emergence of ATL.

Oncogene (2002) 21, 6751-6765. doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1205843

human T cell leukemia virus; interferon regulatory factors; cyclin B1; transcription