The simian virus 40 large tumor antigen.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H Stahl.
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Various monoclonal antibodies specific for simian virus 40 large tumor antigen (T antigen) inhibit the elongation process of viral DNA replication in an in vitro system. The results provide strong evidence for a function intrinsic to T antigen during ongoing replicative-chain elongation. The antibody inhibition studies were further used to establish a correlation between the known biochemical activities of T antigen and its function during the elongation phase. The data demonstrate that, in addition to DNA binding and ATPase, a third function of T antigen is required for replicative chain elongation. This function is most probably related to the recently described DNA helicase activity of T antigen. This conclusion is based on the following results: aphidicolin treatment of actively replicating simian virus 40 minichromosomes causes a partial uncoupling of parental DNA strand separation and DNA synthesis; the strand separation reaction is blocked by the same monoclonal antibodies which strongly inhibit the elongation process. DNA helicase activity of isolated T antigen is equally well inhibited by the same set of monoclonal antibodies that affect minichromosome replication in vitro.
The structure of replicating simian virus 40 (SV40) minichromosomes was studied by DNA crosslinking with trimethyl-psoralen. The procedure was used both in vitro with extracted SV40 minichromosomes as well as in vivo with SV40-infected cells. Both procedures gave essentially the same results. Mature SV40 minichromosomes are estimated to contain about 27 nucleosomes (error +/- 2), except for those molecules with a nucleosome-free gap, which are interpreted to contain 25 nucleosomes (error +/- 2). In replicative intermediates, nucleosomes are present in the unreplicated parental stem with the replication fork possibly penetrating into the nucleosomal DNA before the histone octamer is removed. Nucleosomes reassociate on the newly replicated DNA branches at distances from the branch point of 225 ( +/- 145) nucleotides on the leading strand and of 285( +/- 120) nucleotides on the lagging strand. In the presence of cycloheximide, daughter duplexes contained unequal numbers of nucleosomes, supporting dispersive and random segregation of parental nucleosomes. These were arranged in clusters with normal nucleosome spacing. We detected a novel type of interlocked dimer comprising two fully replicated molecules connected by a single-stranded DNA bridge. We cannot decide whether these dimers represent hemicatenanes or whether the two circles are joined by a Holliday-type structure. The joining site maps within the replication terminus. We propose that these dimers represent molecules engaged in strand segregation.
Large tumor antigen (T antigen) was extracted from SV40-infected African Green Monkey cells and purified to homogeneity by immunoaffinity chromatography. The purified T antigen preparations unwind DNA duplices of greater than 120 bp in a reaction which is dependent on magnesium ions and ATP hydrolysis. Based on these and other properties of the reaction we classify this newly discovered enzymatic activity as a eukaryotic DNA helicase. The helicase and the known ATPase function of T antigen cosediment with the mono- or dimeric 4-6 S form of T antigen, but not with higher T antigen aggregates. The helicase activity seems to be an intrinsic function of SV40 T antigen. First, several different T antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies interfere with the DNA unwinding activity; monoclonals which are known to reduce the T antigen-specific ATPase most strongly inhibited the helicase reaction. Second, mutant T antigens with impaired ATPase function also showed a reduced DNA unwinding activity.
Highly torsionally stressed replicative intermediate SV40 DNA molecules are produced when ongoing replicative DNA synthesis is inhibited by aphidicolin, a specific inhibitor of DNA polymerase alpha. The high negative superhelical density of these molecules can be partially released by intercalating drugs such as chloroquine or ethidium bromide. The torsionally stressed replicative intermediates bind to monoclonal anti-Z-DNA antibodies. Electron microscopy of anti-Z-DNA cross-linked to torsionally stressed replicative intermediates shows that the antibody specifically binds close to the replication forks. The superhelical structures are not formed when SV40 DNA replication is inhibited by both aphidicolin and novobiocin, suggesting that a topoisomerase type II-like enzyme is somehow involved in the introduction of torsional strain in replicative intermediate DNA. One interpretation of our data is that fork movement continues to some rather limited extent when SV40 DNA synthesis in replicative chromatin is blocked by aphidicolin. After deproteinization, the exposed single-stranded DNA branches reassociate to form paranemic DNA structures with left-handed helical stretches, while the reduced linking number of the parental strands induces a high negative superhelical density.
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In productively infected cells, a fraction of large-tumor antigen (T antigen) is tightly bound to replicating simian virus 40 (SV40) minichromosomes and does not dissociate at salt concentrations of greater than 1 M NaCl. We present electronmicrograms demonstrating the presence of T antigen on the replicated sections of replicating SV40 minichromosomes. We also show that the fraction of tightly bound T antigen is recognized by antibodies from mouse tumor serum and, more specifically, by a particular T-antigen-specific monoclonal antibody, PAb 1630. A second T-antigen-specific monoclonal antibody, PAb 101, does not react with the T-antigen fraction remaining on replicating SV40 chromatin at high salt concentrations. We used an in vitro replication system which allows, via semiconservative DNA replication, the completion of in vivo-initiated replicative intermediate DNA molecules. We show that monoclonal antibody PAb 1630, but not monoclonal antibody PAb 101, inhibits viral DNA replication. We discuss the possibility that SV40 T antigen may play a role in chain elongation during SV40 chromatin replication.
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The large tumor antigen (T antigen) is a genome regulation protein, coded by simian virus 40, that binds with high affinity to specific binding sites on viral DNA. The specifically bound T antigen is released from these sites in 0.2-0.3 M NaCl. Immunoprecipitation techniques were used to show that T antigen also dissociates in 0.2-0.3 M NaCl from mature viral chromatin but not from replicating viral chromatin. In fact, a considerable fraction of T antigen remains associated with replicating chromatin at NaCl concentrations as high as 1.2 M NaCl when most chromatin proteins, including histones, dissociate. However, T antigen binding to both replicating DNA and mature DNA is sensitive to intercalating drugs such as caffeine and ethidium bromide. We consider the possibility that the unexpectedly tight binding of T antigen to replicating DNA is related to the function that T antigen performs during viral DNA replication.
Pulse-labeled simian virus 40 (SV40) chromatin as well as uniformly labeled viral chromatin are immunoprecipitable by an SV40-specific tumor antiserum and therefore contain bound tumor antigen (T antigen). Single-stranded calf thymus DNA, immobilized on cellulose, competes effectively for T antigen binding with uniformly labeled nonreplicating, but not with pulse-labeled replicating, chromatin. Furthermore, T antigen dissociates in 0.5 M NaCl from nonreplicating chromatin and from purified SV40 DNA, whereas most T antigen remains associated with replicating chromatin even in the presence of 1.2 to 1.5 M NaCl. We used filtration through DNA-cellulose columns and treatment with high salt to prepare pulse-labeled immunoreactive viral chromatin. The viral DNA was digested before, and in other experiments after, immunoprecipitation with the restriction endonuclease HindIII. We found that SV40 DNA sequences, most probably representing the entire genome, remain in the immunoprecipitate after HindIII digestion, indicating an association of T antigen with origin-distal sections of replicating viral DNA. The results suggest that T antigen in replicating chromatin may be bound to regions close to replicating points. We performed control experiments with in vitro-formed complexes of T antigen and SV40 DNA. When these complexes were immunoprecipitated and HindIII digested we found, in agreement with previous studies, that only the origin containing the HindIII C fragment carried bound T antigen.
Electrical stimulation of the human olfactory mucosa was performed by means of an electrode attached to a rhinoscope . Stimulation of the nasal mucosa did not evoke smell sensations, but suppressed smell sensations of presented odorants. When electrical stimulation followed the exposure to an odorant within a certain interval, the stimulus recalled the already faded sensation of the preceding odorant. Electrical stimulation without prior natural stimulation produced unpleasant sensations in 3 patients with a history of temporal lobe seizures and olfactory auras , but not in patients with primary, generalized or focal epilepsy.
Unfractionated protein extracts from activated Xenopus laevis eggs contain all functions required for the chain elongation reactions in replicative DNA synthesis (A.Richter, B. Otto and R.Knippers, 1981, Nucl.Ac.Res. 9, 3793-3807). In order to further explore the DNA synthesizing capacity of this in vitro system and to obtain information on the DNA priming activity in these extracts single stranded phage M13-DNA was used as template for in vitro DNA synthesis. The main results of this investigation are: (i) single stranded circular template DNA is converted to a double stranded DNA form in an alpha-amanitin-insensitive reaction which is absolutely dependent on ribonucleoside triphosphates; (ii) the in vitro synthesized complementary strands are DNA fragments of 1000-2000 nucleotides lengths; (iii) the DNA primase activity copurifies through several column steps and sucrose gradient centrifugation with a DNA polymerase alpha. These activities may therefore be closely associated in a quarternary enzyme complex.
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Protein kinases (EC 2.7.1.37) were eluted by 0.4 NaCl from chromatin of several mammalian cell typs. The enzymes were partially purified by ion-exchange chromatography, DNA-cellulose columns and sucrose gradient centrifugation. At least five different enzymes could be distinguished by their biochemical properties and their substrate specificities. Three of the enzyme activities tested phosphorylate different sets of histones, while two enzymes phosphorylate acidic nonhistone chromatin proteins or artificial substrates like casein and phosvitin. The two nonhistone protein kinases have slightly different pH and salt optima. They sediment through sucrose gradients with approx. 4 S and approx. 8 S, respectively. These enzymes are further characterized by their different substrate specificity, since they phosphorylate different, though partially overlapping sets of nonhistone chromatin proteins. Enzymes with these properties were deteced in chromatin from mouse ascites cells, bovine lymphocytes, African green monkey kidney cells and a human SV40 transformed cell line.
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It was investigated whether the cytoplasmic control of histone synthesis, i.e. the selective and rapid degradation of histone mRNA following interruption of DNA replication, is linked to the phosphorylation of specific proteins of the translational apparatus or other cytoplasmic proteins. No specific protein phosphorylation was observed when synchronized HeLa cells in the S-phase were blocked with hydroxyurea or cytosine arabinoside and pulse-labeled simultaneously with [32P]orthophosphate. Protein phosphorylation was also studied in cell-free protein-synthesizing systems (S16 extracts) from blocked and unblocked S-phase cells under a variety of conditions. No protein could be detected that becomes specifically phosphorylated with [gamma-32P]ATP in a cell-free system derived from S-phase cells in which DNA replication and histone mRNA translation was interrupted with hydroxyurea.
The fate of cytoplasmic histone mRNA was studied under conditions in which initiation of protein synthesis in synchronized HeLa cells is S phase was blocked by increasing the osmolarity of the growth medium with NaCl. In contrast to the interruption of DNA replication with hydroxyurea, which results in an exponential degradation of translatable histone mRNA with a half-life of about 10-13 min, blocking the initiation of protein synthesis leads to only a marginal loss of biologically active histone mRNA in the cytoplasm. When the initiation of protein synthesis was interrupted by treating cells with 150 mM NaCl, 40-50% of the total cytoplasmic histone mRNA previously translated in polyribosomes appears in the cytoplasm integrated into mRNA-protein particle(s) sedimenting between 15 S and 30 S. On the other hand, in untreated S-phase cells or in cells blocked with hydroxyurea only 3-6% of the total translatable histone mRNA is found in the cytoplasm not bound to ribosomes or their subunits. In addition, the degradation of histone mRNA in hydroxyurea-blocked S-phase cells is prevented when the initiation of protein synthesis is inhibited with NaCl. These studies clearly indicate that the inhibition of initiation of protein synthesis per se is not the cause for the rapid degradation of cytoplasmic histone mRNA observed when DNA replication is turned off and that the inactivation of these mRNAs is a process dependent on continuous protein synthesis.
Temperature/time curves and corresponding CT scans of > 200 regional heat treatments with the hyperthermia system BSD-2000 in 43 patients have been analysed. In vivo variables and treatment parameters such as local specific absorption rate SAR, local relative SAR parallel SAR parallel, total power P, local cooling coefficients wb, and local steady-state temperature elevations delta Tss (above systemic temperature) have been determined. For determination of wb the well-known and accepted steady-state approach has been used, which was slightly modified for the purposes of this study. Specifically, comparison of cooling coefficients at the beginning and end of heat treatments were performed in tumours and normal tissues. Other variables are anatomical descriptors from CT scans, score of side effects plim, and various clinical factors. A variance analysis of the dependent variables, specifically delta Tss and parallel SAR parallel, is performed with respect to factors which were estimated as predictive. The intratumoral steady-state temperature elevations are determined by the perfusion-related cooling coefficients and local SAR to almost the same extent. Increase of cooling coefficients in tumours during the heat treatment characterizing the thermoregulatory potential have a slight but less important influence with respect to the achieved temperature elevations. SAR is influenced by several anatomical factors which determine the relative SAR distribution and clinical factors which limit the total power P. However, options for controlling present RHT systems in order to optimize the relative SAR distribution or to avoid hot spot phenomena appear limited. Three-dimensional modelling calculations show that the spatial arrangement of electrical interfaces emerging from bone and fat structures limits SAR control in available RHT technology and is mainly responsible for local power-dependent discomfort (Wust et al. 1994b). Some conclusions are drawn, about how technological development of hyperthermia technology can contribute towards overcoming this problem.