Project description:Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with multiple human malignancies. To evade immune detection, EBV switches between latent and lytic programs. How viral latency is maintained in tumors or in memory B cells, the reservoir for lifelong EBV infection, remains incompletely understood. To gain insights, we performed a human genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screen in Burkitt lymphoma B cells. Our analyses identified a network of host factors that repress lytic reactivation, centered on the transcription factor MYC, including cohesins, FACT, STAGA, and Mediator. Depletion of MYC or factors important for MYC expression reactivated the lytic cycle, including in Burkitt xenografts. MYC bound the EBV genome origin of lytic replication and suppressed its looping to the lytic cycle initiator BZLF1 promoter. Notably, MYC abundance decreases with plasma cell differentiation, a key lytic reactivation trigger. Our results suggest that EBV senses MYC abundance as a readout of B cell state and highlights Burkitt latency reversal therapeutic targets.
Project description:The immediate-early (IE) BZLF1 gene of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) regulates the switch between latent and lytic infection by EBV. We previously showed that the cellular transcription factor ZEB1 binds to a sequence element, ZV, located at nt -17 to -12 relative to the transcription initiation site of the BZLF1 promoter, Zp, repressing transcription from Zp in a transient transfection assay. Here, we report the phenotype in the context of a whole EBV genome of a variant of EBV strain B95.8 containing a 2-bp substitution mutation in the ZV element of Zp that reduced, but did not eliminate, ZEB1 binding to Zp. Strikingly, epithelial 293 cells latently infected with the EBV ZV mutant spontaneously produced IE-, early-, and late-gene products and infectious virus, while wild-type (WT)-infected 293 cells did not and have never been reported to do so. Furthermore, treatment with the chemical inducers sodium butyrate and 12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) led to an additional order-of-magnitude production of infectious virus in the ZV mutant-infected 293 cells, but still no virus in the WT-infected 293 cells. Similarly, ZV mutant-infected Burkitt's lymphoma BJAB cells accumulated at least 10-fold more EBV IE mRNAs than did WT-infected BJAB cells, with TPA or sodium butyrate treatment leading to an additional 5- to 10-fold accumulation of EBV IE mRNAs in the ZV mutant-infected cells. Thus, we conclude that ZEB1 binding to Zp plays a central role in regulating the latent-lytic switch in EBV-infected epithelial and B cells, suggesting ZEB1 as a target for lytic-induction therapies in EBV-associated malignancies.
Project description:Ikaros is a zinc finger DNA-binding protein that regulates chromatin remodeling and the expression of genes involved in the cell cycle, apoptosis, and Notch signaling. It is a master regulator of lymphocyte differentiation and functions as a tumor suppressor in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nevertheless, no previous reports described effects of Ikaros on the life cycle of any human lymphotropic virus. Here, we demonstrate that full-length Ikaros (IK-1) functions as a major factor in the maintenance of viral latency in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive Burkitt's lymphoma Sal and MutuI cell lines. Either silencing of Ikaros expression by small hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown or ectopic expression of a non-DNA-binding isoform induced lytic gene expression. These effects synergized with other lytic inducers of EBV, including transforming growth factor ? (TGF-?) and the hypoxia mimic desferrioxamine. Data from chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-quantitative PCR (qPCR) and ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq) analyses indicated that Ikaros did not bind to either of the EBV immediate early genes BZLF1 and BRLF1. Rather, Ikaros affected the expression of Oct-2 and Bcl-6, other transcription factors that directly inhibit EBV reactivation and plasma cell differentiation, respectively. IK-1 also complexed with the EBV immediate early R protein in coimmunoprecipitation assays and partially colocalized with R within cells. The presence of R alleviated IK-1-mediated transcriptional repression, with IK-1 then cooperating with Z and R to enhance lytic gene expression. Thus, we conclude that Ikaros plays distinct roles at different stages of EBV's life cycle: it contributes to maintaining latency via indirect mechanisms, and it may also synergize with Z and R to enhance lytic replication through direct association with R and/or R-induced alterations in Ikaros' functional activities via cellular signaling pathways.This is the first report showing that the cellular protein Ikaros, a known master regulator of hematopoiesis and critical tumor suppressor in acute lymphoblastic leukemia, also plays important roles in the life cycle of Epstein-Barr virus in B cells.
Project description:Episomal reporter plasmids containing the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) oriP sequence stably transfected into Akata Burkitt's lymphoma cells were used to analyze EBV lytic cycle gene regulation. First, we found that the Zp promoter of EBV, but not the Rp promoter, can be activated in the absence of protein synthesis in these oriP plasmids, casting doubt on the immediate early status of Rp. An additional level of regulation of Zp was implied by analysis of a mutation of the ZV element. Second, our analysis of late lytic cycle promoters revealed that the correct relative timing, dependence on ori lyt in cis, and sensitivity to inhibitors of DNA replication were reconstituted on the oriP plasmids. Late promoter luciferase activity from oriP plasmids also incorporating replication-competent ori lyt was phosphonoacetic acid sensitive, a hallmark of EBV late genes. A minimal ori lyt, which only replicates weakly, was sufficient to confer late timing of expression specifically on late promoters. Finally, deletion analysis of EBV late promoter sequences upstream of the transcription start site confirmed that sequences between -49 and +30 are sufficient for late gene expression, which is dependent on ori lyt in cis. However, the TATT version of the TATA box found in many late genes was not essential for late expression.