Transcription pattern of human herpesvirus 8 open reading frame K3 in primary effusion lymphoma and Kaposi's sarcoma.

ABSTRACT: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is found in immunoblastic B cells of patients with multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) and, predominantly in a latent form, in primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) cells and Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) spindle cells. Recent studies have shown that upon reactivation, HHV-8 expresses factors that downregulate major histocompatibility class I proteins and coactivation molecules and that may enable productively infected cells to escape cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cell responses. One of these viral factors is encoded by open reading frame (ORF) K3. Here we show that in PEL cells, ORF K3 is expressed through viral transcripts that are induced very early upon virus reactivation, including bicistronic RNA molecules containing coding sequences from viral ORFs K3 a

SUBMITTER: Rimessi P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC114445 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature