Priming affects the activity of a specific region of the promoter of the human beta interferon gene.
Treatment of Daudi or HeLa cells with human interferon (IFN) alpha 8 before induction with either poly(I)-poly(C) or Sendai virus resulted in an 8- to 100-fold increase in IFN production. The extent of priming in Daudi cells paralleled the increase in the intracellular content of IFN-beta mRNA. IFN-alpha mRNA remained undetectable in poly(I)-poly(C)-treated Daudi cells either before or after priming. An IFN-resistant clone of Daudi cells was found to produce 4- to 20-fold more IFN after priming, indicating that priming was unrelated to the phenotype of IFN sensitivity. IFN treatment of either Daudi or HeLa cells transfected with the human IFN-beta promoter (-282 to -37) linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene resulted in an increase in CAT activity after induction with poly(I)-poly(C) or Sendai virus. A synthetic double-stranded oligonucleotide corresponding to an authentic 30-base-pair (bp) region of the human IFN-beta promoter between positions -91 and -62 was found to confer virus inducibility upon the reporter CAT gene in HeLa cells. IFN treatment of HeLa cells transfected with this 30-bp region of the IFN-beta promoter in either the correct or reversed orientation also increased CAT activity upon subsequent induction. IFN treatment alone had no detectable effect on the activity of either the 30-bp region or the complete human IFN promoter.
Dron
M
M
Laboratory of Viral Oncology (UPR 274), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Villejuif, France.
Lacasa
M
M
Tovey
M G
MG
D002460:Cell Line; D003513:Cycloheximide / Q000494:pharmacology; D015870:Gene Expression; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005796:Genes; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D007370:Interferon Type I / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology; D010222:Parainfluenza Virus 1, Human / Q000235:genetics; D011070:Poly I-C / Q000494:pharmacology; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects
D007370:Interferon Type I; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D003513:Cycloheximide; D011070:Poly I-C