A single-nucleotide deletion leads to rapid degradation of TAP-1 mRNA in a melanoma cell line.

Both viruses and tumors evade cytotoxic T lymphocyte-mediated host immunity by down-regulation of antigen presentation machineries. This can be achieved by either down-regulation of transcription of antigen presentation genes or posttranslational inactivation of proteins involved in antigen presentation. In this study, a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-deficient melanoma cell line, SK-MEL-19, was found deficient in the expression of the transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP)-1 mRNA even after IFN-gamma stimulation, despite its active transcription of the TAP-1 gene. This abnormality was caused by a single-nucleotide deletion at position +1489 of the TAP-1 gene and was corrected by cycloheximide, which inhibits RNA degradation. Using an inducible Tet-Off system, we demonstrated that deletion of the nucleotide resulted in a >2-fold decrease in the half-life of TAP-1 mRNA. However, the decrease of the half-life of TAP-1 mRNA is not mediated by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay because deletions of two additional nucleotides in the region, which corrected the nonsense mutation, did not restore TAP-1 mRNA stability. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that the degradation of mRNA of an antigen presentation gene is involved in HLA class I down-regulation in malignant cells.