Tumour necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-1 beta induce specific subunits of NFKB to bind the HIV-1 enhancer: characterisation of transcription factors controlling human immunodeficiency virus type 1 gene expression in neural cells.

In human astrocytoma and neuroblastoma cell lines tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) and interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) induced NFKB and an additional KB-specific protein of approximately 80 K to bind the HIV-1 enhancer. One nucleoprotein complex contained prototypical NFKB comprising of p50 and p65 subunits and a second contained the p65 subunit and an 80 K factor, p80. Over a 24 hr period of cytokine stimulation the p50/p65 complex of NFKB was present in the nucleus whilst the second complex declined in abundance after two hours due to the decline of p80. In unstimulated cells, DNAse I footprinting revealed a previously unidentified octamer-like binding site in the negative regulatory element (NRE) of the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) which specifically bound protein factors present in human astrocytoma, neuroblastoma and murine oligodendroglioma cell lines. A second unique motif, also in the NRE, was observed with extracts from one human neuroblastoma cell line and a murine oligodendroglioma. Footprinting analysis also confirmed that Sp1, TATA, Site A and Site B motifs of the LTR were occupied by nuclear factors present in neural cells.