Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P51532 (transcriptional activator)
 6,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The viral oncogene Tax derived from human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is a positive transcriptional activator of HTLV-1 gene expression. Tax is also able to indirectly stimulate transcription of several growth regulatory genes by an indirect mechanism via association with host transcription factors. One of the cellular targets of the trans-activating effects of Tax is the NF-kappa B/Rel family transcription factors, pleiotropic regulators of immunoregulatory, cytokine, and viral gene expression. Recent studies demonstrated that specific subunits of NF-kappa B (NFKB2(p 100) and c-Rel) were overexpressed in HTLV-I-infected and Tax-expressing cells. Furthermore, Tax physically associated with NFKB2(p 100). Monospecific antibodies directed against individual NF-kappa B subunits were generated and used to investigate the consequences of the interactions between Tax and NF-kappa B in a cotransfection-immunofluorescence assay. These studies demonstrate: (1) distinct compartmentalization of NF-kappa B precursors and products, (2) differential induction of the endogenous I kappa B alpha protein by transfected NF-kappa B subunits, (3) subcellular relocalization of Tax to the cytoplasm or nucleus depending on the coexpressed NF-kappa B subunit, and (4) Tax interaction with the Rel homology domain region of NFKB2. These studies indicate that the transcription modulatory influence of HTLV-I Tax may be significantly influenced by cytoplasmic-nuclear partitioning associated with the NF-kappa B proteins.
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PMID:Subcellular redistribution of HTLV-1 Tax protein by NF-kappa B/Rel transcription factors. 794 39

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) encodes a strong transcriptional activator, Tax, that stimulates transcription indirectly through the viral long terminal repeat and also activates a number of cellular genes via association with host transcription factors. The NF-kappa B/Rel pathway is a target for Tax trans-activation, and Tax has been correlated with increased NF-kappa B-binding activity and NF-kappa B-dependent gene expression in HTLV-I-infected cells. In this study we demonstrate that constitutive phosphorylation and increased turnover of the regulatory I kappa B alpha protein in HTLV-I-infected MT-2 and C8166 cells and Tax-expressing 19D cells contribute to constitutive NF-kappa B-binding activity, which consists primarily of c-Rel, p52(NFKB2), and p50(NFKB1). I kappa B alpha mRNA expression is also increased 7- to 20-fold in these cells, although the steady-state level of I kappa B alpha protein is reduced in HTLV-I-infected and Tax-expressing T cells. These results indicate that the viral Tax protein, by indirectly mediating phosphorylation of I kappa B, may target I kappa B alpha for rapid degradation, thus leading to constitutive NF-kappa B activity.
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PMID:Constitutive phosphorylation and turnover of I kappa B alpha in human T-cell leukemia virus type I-infected and Tax-expressing T cells. 798 56

Molecular, biochemical and epidemiological evidence implicate HTLV-I as an etiologic agent of adult T cell leukemia (ATL). The Tax protein of HTLV-I, a positive transcriptional activator of HTLV-I gene expression, is a viral oncogene that also increases transcription of cellular genes including GM-CSF, IL-2R alpha and IL-2. One of the cellular targets of the trans-activating effects of Tax is the NF-kappa B/Rel family of transcription factors, pleiotropic regulators of immunoregulatory, cytokine and viral gene expression. In this report, we demonstrate that NFKB2 (lyt-10) and c-Rel are overexpressed in HTLV-I infected and Tax-expressing cells and, together, account for the majority of the constitutive NF-kappa B binding activity in these cells before and after PMA stimulation. Most importantly, we show a Tax-dependent correlation between expression of NFKB2(p100) and processing to the DNA binding NFKB2(p52) form, induction of c-Rel, and trans-activation of NF-kappa B-mediated gene expression. Furthermore, the NFKB2 precursor is physically associated with c-Rel and with Tax in HTLV-I infected cells. We propose that NFKB2 synthesis and processing allows continuous nuclear expression of an otherwise cytoplasmic protein and, in conjunction with overexpression of c-Rel, NFKB2 alters the NF-kappa B signalling pathway and contributes to leukemic transformation of T cells by HTLV-I.
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PMID:Overproduction of NFKB2 (lyt-10) and c-Rel: a mechanism for HTLV-I Tax-mediated trans-activation via the NF-kappa B signalling pathway. 810 27

Although I kappa B is a cytoplasmic inhibitor of NF-kappa B and c-Rel that prevents nuclear translocation of NF-kappa B, some forms of I kappa B have been found in the nucleus. Given that some other proteins with ankyrin-type repeats are transcription factors, we wondered if a nuclear form of I kappa B alpha could itself be a transcriptional activator. We found that Gal4-I kappa B alpha fusion proteins strongly transactivate a Gal4 site-containing promoter in 3T3 fibroblasts. The I kappa B alpha domain responsible for this transactivation is not the acidic domain of I kappa B alpha, but the ankyrin repeat domain which is responsible for protein-protein interactions. To enhance our ability to detect cellular I kappa B alpha by immunofluorescence, we overexpressed the protein in transfected cells, and found that overexpressed I kappa B alpha is largely cytoplasmic in serum-deprived cells, but nuclear in serum-stimulated cells. However, in cell fractionation studies under all treatment conditions, I kappa B alpha appears mainly in cytoplasmic fractions, suggesting that it can rapidly move out of the nucleus through nuclear pores during extract preparation. Using double antibody immunoprecipitations, we found that I kappa B alpha in proliferating cells is strongly associated with RelA(p65). When I kappa B alpha is fused to the Gal4 DNA-binding domain, nuclear Gal4-I kappa B alpha is associated with RelA(p65). Thus, the activation domain of the associated RelA(p65) molecule could account for the ability of Gal4-I kappa B alpha to transactivate the Gal4 promoter. Unlike Bcl-3, an I kappa B which has been recently shown to directly transactivate through kappa B sites when associated with NFKB2 (p52), I kappa B alpha shows no ability to directly transactivate target promoters via its association with RelA(p65).
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PMID:I kappa B alpha can localize in the nucleus but shows no direct transactivation potential. 836 66