Differences in the immunogenicity of latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) encoded by Epstein-Barr virus genomes derived from LMP1-positive and -negative nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

We have previously shown that an EBV-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) gene derived from a nude mouse-propagated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tumor and expressed in nonimmunogenic murine mammary carcinoma S6C cells failed to convey immunogenicity (rejectability) in syngeneic mice, whereas the corresponding B-cell derived LMP1 gene made the mice highly immunogenic. This raised the question of whether LMPL-expressing NPCs have been selected for low immunogenicity at the viral gene expression level. If so, LMP1-negative tumors that carry highly methylated LMP1 regulatory sequences may not have been exposed to a similar immunoselection. In the present study, we have compared LMP1 genes derived from two LMP1-positive NPCs and two LMP1-negative NPCs. All four genes were expressed in S6C cells in parallel with the previously tested isolates from a B-cell (B95-8)-derived and a nude mouse-propagated NPC (Cao)-derived gene. As in the previous study, we have found that the B-cell-derived LMP1 isolate was highly immunogenic. LMP1-positive tumor-derived isolates were poorly immunogenic, whereas the isolates from the LMP1-negative NPC tumor had intermediate immunogenicity. Sequence data revealed that LMP1 genes from LMP1-expressing NPC had 16 amino acid substitutions, whereas LMP1 from non-LMP1-expressing NPC had only 9 amino acid changes in the coding region. Three of the changes were at shared sites, but with different modifications. The fact that the gene from non-LMP1-expressing NPC mutated at a low frequency but was more immunogenic than the LMP1 gene derived from LMP1-expressing NPC, which was highly mutated but less immunogenic, favors the idea that LMP1-positive tumors escape immunosurveillance in immunocompetent hosts by either a selective down-regulation of LMP1 expression, methylation in the LMP1 promoter sequence, or mutation of LMP1 in LMP1-expressing samples.