Latency-associated nuclear antigen of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus interacts with human myeloid cell nuclear differentiation antigen induced by interferon alpha.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)/human herpes virus type 8 (HHV-8) is tightly linked to the development of Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and some cases of multicentric Castleman's disease. Latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) is one of a limited number of KSHV genes consistently expressed in these diseases as well as in KSHV-infected cell lines derived from PEL, and has been shown to play crucial role in persistence of KSHV genomes in the infected cells. In this study, we explored the cellular factors that interact with LANA using yeast two-hybrid screening, and isolated a part of gene encoding human myeloid cell nuclear differentiation antigen (MNDA). MNDA is a hematopoietic interferon-inducible nuclear proteins with a HIN-200 family member with conserved 200-amino acid repeats. Immunoprecipitation assay revealed that LANA interacted with MNDA in a mammalian embryonic kidney cell line. MNDA transcript was undetectable in three PEL cell lines by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, but it was induced by interferon alpha (IFNalpha). Moreover, LANA and MNDA were co-localized in the nuclei of MNDA-expressing PEL cells. Our results suggest that LANA interacts with MNDA in KSHV-infected cells exposed to IFNalpha. Such interaction may modulate IFN-mediated host defense activities.