The immediate early genes of human cytomegalovirus upregulate expression of the cellular genes myc and fos.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an important pathogen of the lung. We determined whether the HCMV immediate early genes (IE1 and IE2) can alter the regulation of the cellular immediate early genes (c-fos and c-myc). Plasmid constructs containing the promoter-regulatory regions c-myc or c-fos upstream of the reporter gene, chloramphemicol acetyl transferase, were co-transfected into T cells (Jurkat cells), monocytes/macrophages (THP-1 cells), or human fibroblast cells with plasmid constructs containing the promoter-regulatory region of the HCMV IE genes upstream of the bona fide IE1, IE2 or IE+2 genes; a plasmid that contained no IE coding region was used as a control. These studies show that both products of the HCMV IE genes markedly upregulated expression of the cellular c-fos and c-myc genes. The viral effects of individual proteins (IE1 or IE2) were dependent both on the promoter-regulatory region of the cellular gene and the cell type. In all cells, the combination of IE1 and IE2 further upregulated both cellular genes, suggesting a synergistic effect of IE1 with IE2. Both of the c-myc promoters (P1 and P2) were up-regulated by the HCMV IE gene products. IE1 and IE2 also upregulated the cells' endogenous c-myc and c-fos genes, as determined by amounts of the respective mRNAs. These studies show that HCMV can markedly alter cellular IE gene expression and that the effects of HCMV IE1 and IE2 proteins are dependent both on the promoter-regulatory region of the cellular gene and the type of cell in which the interaction occurs.