Abstract

Infection with human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) can result in the development of HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). HTLV-2 is highly related to HTLV-1 at the genetic level and shares a high degree of sequence homology, but infection with HTLV-2 is relatively nonpathogenic compared to HTLV-1. Although the pathogenesis of HAM/TSP remains to be fully elucidated, previous evidence suggests that elevated levels of the proinflammatory cytokines in the CNS are associated with neuropathogenesis. We demonstrate that HTLV-1 infection in astrogliomas results in a robust induction of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-1alpha, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), TNF-beta, and IL-6 expression. HTLV encodes for a viral transcriptional transactivator protein named Tax that also induces the transcription of cellular genes. To investigate and compare the effects of Tax1 and Tax2 expression on the dysregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, lentivirus vectors were used to transduce primary human astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas. The expression of Tax1 in primary human astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas resulted in significantly higher levels of proinflammatory cytokine gene expression compared to Tax2. Notably, Tax1 expression uniquely sensitized primary human astrocytomas to apoptosis. A Tax2/Tax1 chimera encoding the C-terminal 53 amino acids of the Tax1 fused to the Tax2 gene (Tax(221)) demonstrated a phenotype that resembled Tax1, with respect to proinflammatory cytokine gene expression and sensitization to apoptosis. The patterns of differential cytokine induction and sensitization to apoptosis displayed by Tax1 and Tax2 may reflect differences relating to the heightened neuropathogenicity associated with HTLV-1 infection and the development of HAM/TSP.