Constitutive Activation of Toll like Receptor Signaling in Adult T-Cell Leukemia Cells.

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) is etiologically associated with the development of an aggressive and fatal malignancy of CD4+ T lymphocytes called adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). Constitutive activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a common feature of ATL. Although the mechanism by which NF-κB is spontaneously activated in ATL cells still remains unclear, inhibition of NF-κB activity induces apoptosis, suggesting a central role of NF-κB in their proliferation. Toll like receptors (TLRs) are involved in innate cell activation by conserved structures expressed by microorganisms. Engagement of IL-1R or TLR with their cognate ligands causes an adaptor protein MyD88 to be recruited to the receptor complex, which in turn promotes its association with the IL-1R-associated kinase (IRAK) via an interaction between the respective death domains of each molecule. Several recent reports have indicated unique expression profiles of TLRs on different subsets of human T cells, and that some TLR ligands modulate the function of human T cells. We examined expression of the TLR mRNAs in primary ATL cells and ATL cell lines, MT2, MT4 and HUT102 by RT-PCR. Expression of TLR mRNAs, except of TLR7 and TLR8, was detected in all cell samples examined. We further demonstrated constitutive association of MyD88, an adaptor protein for the TLR signaling, with the IL-1R-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1) in ATL cell lines, MT2, MT4 and HUT102. In MT2 cells, constitutive activation of NF-κB and NF-IL6, but not Stat3 was significantly inhibited by expression of a dominant negative form of MyD88 protein (MyD88dn). Spontaneous transcriptional activation of IL-1α, IFN-γ and TNF-α gene promoters in MT2 cells was also suppressed by MyD88dn expression. MyD88dn inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis of MT2 cells. In addition, overexpression of wild-type MyD88 and HTLV-I Tax induces synergistically transcriptional activity of NF-κB in 293T cells, showing interaction of Tax with MyD88. Thus, our results show a critical role of MyD88 in dysregulated gene activation and cell proliferation in HTLV-I-transformed T-cells, and further suggest the involvement of MyD88 in Tax-mediated intracellular signal transduction in HTLV-I-infected cells. Considering the fact that blocking NF-κB is a potential strategy to treat ATL, our argument raises a possibility that we may be able to find new treatment targets against ATL.