Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) Tax1 oncoprotein but not HTLV-2 Tax2 induces the expression of OX40 ligand by interacting with p52/p100 and RelB.

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a causative retrovirus of adult T-cell leukemia and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy. Unlike HTLV-1, the same group of retrovirus HTLV-2 has not been found to be associated with these diseases. HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 encode transforming proteins Tax1 and Tax2, and a few distinct activities of Tax1 from those of Tax2 have been proposed to contribute to the HTLV-1-specific pathogenesis of disease. One significant difference of Tax1 from Tax2 is the activation of transcription factor NF-κB2/p100/p52. We found that Tax1 but not Tax2 induces the expression of OX40 ligand (OX40L) in a human T-cell line. To induce the OX40L expression, Tax1 but not Tax2 was observed to interact with NF-κB2/p100/p52 and RelB and the distinct interaction activity was mediated by the Tax1 amino acid region of 225-232. In addition, Tax1 but not Tax2 or Tax1/225-232 interacted with p65, p50, and c-Rel; however, the interactions were much less than those noted with NF-κB2/p100/p52 and RelB. OX40L is a T-cell costimulatory molecule of the tumor necrosis factor family, and its signal plays a critical role in establishing adaptive immunity by inducing the polarized differentiation of T-cells to cells such as T helper type 2 and T follicular helper cells. Therefore, the present findings suggest that Tax1 might alter the immune response to HTLV-1 and/or differentiation of HTLV-1-infected T-cells via OX40L induction, thereby acting as a factor mediating the distinct phenotypes and pathogenesis of HTLV-1 from that of HTLV-2.