Adenovirus E3 protein causes constitutively internalized epidermal growth factor receptors to accumulate in a prelysosomal compartment, resulting in enhanced degradation.

We have previously identified and characterized an integral membrane protein coded for by the early transcription region 3 (E3) of human group C adenoviruses that down-regulates the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The goal of this study was to characterize the early receptor trafficking events leading to enhanced EGFR degradation in adenovirus-infected cells. Specifically, we wished to determine whether adenovirus increases the rate of EGFR internalization or alters the subcellular compartmentalization of internalized EGFRs. Once the optimal time for measuring early trafficking events was determined, surface EGFRs were labeled with a cleavable biotin reagent to measure internalization rates and with a receptor-specific monoclonal antibody (MAb) conjugated to colloidal gold for intracellular localization studies. We first showed that the rate of EGFR internalization in adenovirus-infected cells is indistinguishable from the constitutive internalization rate for unoccupied EGFRs. The possibility that the E3 protein can affect trafficking of EGFRs internalized at a low constitutive rate was further supported by studies showing that adenovirus-mediated down-regulation occurs independently of EGFR oligomerization and intrinsic EGFR tyrosine kinase activity, which are required for efficient ligand-induced internalization. Other tyrosine kinases inhibited by genistein are also not required for adenovirus-induced down-regulation. When the intracellular localization of EGFRs during adenovirus-mediated down-regulation was examined by electron microscopy, there was a threefold increase in the number of EGFRs localized to multivesicular bodies. The multivesicular body has been proposed to be important for regulating intracellular membrane protein sorting, since trafficking patterns for receptors that recycle and receptors that are degraded diverge in this organelle. These data therefore suggest that adenovirus may enhance EGFR degradation by causing constitutively internalized EGFRs to accumulate in a prelysosomal compartment. This is the first example of a mechanism that efficiently down-regulates EGFR without significantly increasing the rate of internalization or that does not require EGFR tyrosine kinase activity. Since viral proteins often mimic or modify a host counterpart, this suggests that there are normal physiological conditions when receptor destruction without tyrosine signalling is beneficial.