Correlation between Oligo-2\u27, 5\u27-adenylate Synthetase and Expression of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type-I Specific gag Protein

The effect of human interferon-α (IFN-α) on the production of virus specific gag protein was investigated in four human T cell lines persistently in-fected with human T-lymphotropic virus type-I (HTLV-I). These four cell lines (MT-2, SMT-1, HUT 102, and OKM-2) differed in sensitivity to the func-tions (antivirus activity, antiproliferative activity, and oligo-2\u27, 5\u27-adenylate synthetase induction) of IFN. The expression of HTLV-I gag-protein, p 53, p 33, p 28, p 24, and p 19, was found in each IFN-α or non-treated cell lines by Western blotting analysis. However, production of p 33, p 28 and p 24 was different among these cell lines. Protein bands of p 53, p 28, p 24, and p 19 were detected in MT-2 cell lines, and p 33 was found in SMT-1 and OKM-2 cell lines instead of p 28. Those of p 28 and p 24 were undetectable in HUT 102 cell line. Furthermore, the expression of these virus antigens was hardly affected by exogenously added IFN-α in spite of the induction of oligo-2\u27, 5\u27-adenylate synthetase (2-5AS) activity