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Journal of Virology, February 2005, p. 2643-2649, Vol. 79, No. 4
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.4.2643-2649.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Latent Membrane Protein 1 Deletion Mutants Accumulate in Reed-Sternberg Cells of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Related Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Massimo Guidoboni,1
Maurilio Ponzoni,2
Laura Caggiari,1
Antonia A. Lettini,1
Luca Vago,3
Valli De Re,4
Annunziata Gloghini,5
Paola Zancai,1
Antonino Carbone,5
Mauro Boiocchi,4 and
Riccardo Dolcetti1*
Immunovirology and Biotherapy Unit,1
Division of Experimental Oncology 1, Department of Pre-Clinical and Epidemiological Research,4
Division of Pathology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, National Cancer Institute, Aviano, Pordenone,5
Department of Pathology, S. Raffaele H. Scientific Institute,2
Institute of Biomedical Sciences "L. Sacco," Milan, Italy3
Received 16 March 2004/
Accepted 5 July 2004

ABSTRACT
The origin and biological significance of deletions at the 3'
end of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded latent membrane
protein 1 (LMP-1) gene are still controversial. We herein demonstrate
that LMP-1 deletion mutants are highly associated with human
immunodeficiency virus-related Hodgkin's lymphoma (HIV-HL) of
Italian patients (29 of 31 cases; 93.5%), a phenomenon that
is not due to a peculiar distribution of EBV strains in this
area. In fact, although HIV-HL patients are infected by multiple
EBV variants, we demonstrate that LMP-1 deletion mutants preferentially
accumulate within neoplastic tissues. Subcloning and sequencing
of the 3' LMP-1 ends of two HIV-HL genes in which both variants
were present showed the presence of molecular signatures suggestive
of a likely derivation of the LMP-1 deletion mutant from a nondeletion
ancestor. This phenomenon likely occurs within tumor cells in
vivo, as shown by the detection of both LMP-1 variants in single
microdissected Reed-Sternberg cells, and may at least in part
explain the high prevalence of LMP-1 deletions associated with
HIV-HL.

TEXT
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous gammaherpesvirus asymptomatically
carried by more than 95% of the human population. The virus
has been implicated in the pathogenesis of undifferentiated
nasopharyngeal carcinoma, endemic Burkitt's lymphoma, posttransplant
lymphoproliferative disorders, and classical Hodgkin's lymphoma
(HL) (
17). While only a fraction of HL from the general population
is EBV associated, human immunodeficiency virus-related HL (HIV-HL)
is pathogenetically linked to EBV in 80 to 100% of cases (
1,
8,
14,
17,
26,
29). Besides EBV-encoded RNAs, EBNA-1, and latent
membrane protein 2 (LMP-2), Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells
(H-RSCs) in these cases invariably show a strong expression
of the oncogenic LMP-1 protein (
1,
4,
8,
17,
26), an integral
membrane protein of 386 amino acids able to exert pleiotropic
effects essential for EBV-induced B-cell transformation (
11,
17). Recent biochemical studies have shown that LMP-1 activates
the NF-

B and AP-1 transcription factors and triggers the JAK/STAT
pathway (
11) by recruiting signal-transducing molecules at docking
sites in its C-terminal region. Interestingly, this region is
highly heterogeneous across diverse isolates, showing clustered
point mutations, insertions, and in-frame 30- or 69-bp deletions
(
3,
17,
30). A high prevalence of the 30-bp LMP-1 deletion mutants
was reported in undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (
6,
15), peripheral T-cell lymphomas (
22), posttransplant lymphoproliferative
disorders (
25), and, particularly, in aggressive HIV-unrelated
HL and HIV-HL (
2,
9,
10,
19,
22), suggesting that these LMP-1
deletion mutants may have increased transforming potential.
Accordingly, LMP-1 deletion forms display enhanced tumorigenicity
and reduced immunogenicity compared with those of LMP-1 of strain
B95.8, in animal and in vitro models (
6,
16,
27,
28). Nevertheless,
the real pathogenetic significance of deletions and/or mutations
within the 3' end of the LMP-1 gene still awaits a conclusive
demonstration. Moreover, it is not clear whether the high prevalence
of LMP-1 deletion variants detected in some EBV-related disorders
merely reflects the predominance of these variants in some geographic
areas or is rather due to peculiar virus-host interactions leading
to enhanced production and/or selection of LMP-1 deletion mutants.
To address this issue, we have reassessed the association between
LMP-1 deletion mutants and HIV-HL by characterizing the 3' LMP-1
variants infecting a large group of Italian HIV-HL patients
in comparison with those detected in reactive lymphadenopathies
from HIV-seropositive patients of the same geographic area.
Moreover, the EBV variants concurrently present at diverse anatomic
sites in HIV-HL patients were also characterized by multilocus
analysis. Molecular analyses were performed on 32 tumor biopsy
samples obtained from 31 HIV-HL patients identified by searching
the files of the Division of Pathology of the Centro di Riferimento
Oncologico, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico,
National Cancer Institute (Aviano, Italy), the S. Raffaele Scientific
Institute (Milan, Italy), and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences
(Milan, Italy). Association with EBV was verified in all cases
by EBV-encoded RNA in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry
for the LMP-1 expression, as described (
4,
5). LMP-1 variants
were characterized by use of a touchdown PCR that encompassed
the 33-bp repeat and the deletion region of the LMP-1 gene,
allowing the concurrent evaluation of two polymorphic loci within
the 3' region of the gene. Genomic DNA was extracted from snap-frozen
or formalin-fixed tissue by use of a silica gel spin cartridge
after proteinase K digestion. The carboxy terminus of the LMP-1
gene (nucleotide [nt] positions 168209 to 168649) was amplified
by a first round of PCR (primer 1s, 5' CCA CCT GCT CGT GAG TGG
AGC 3'; primer 1as, 5' CCA CCG GAA CCA GAA GAA CCC 3') and used
as a common template for the amplification of 33-bp repeats
and either 30- or 69-bp deletion regions by a second round of
nested PCR. Amplification of the internal 33-bp repeat region
was performed using the first-round sense primer 1s and a second-round
antisense primer (primer 2as, 5' GGC CCT CCA TCA TTT CCA GCA
3'); a second primer (primer 2s, 5' TGC TGG AAA TGA TGG AGG
CCC 3'), complementary to the region recognized by primer 2as,
and the first-round antisense primer 1as were used to amplify
the deletion region. Primers were chosen within regions of the
LMP-1 carboxy terminus showing a limited degree of sequence
heterogeneity among natural isolates (
30). Amplification reaction
mixtures contained 2 to 5 µl of DNA, 1
x AmpliTaq Gold
PCR Master mix II (Perkin-Elmer Life Sciences, Boston, Mass.),
1.5 mM MgCl
2, and a 200 nM concentration of each of the specific
primers in a total volume of 50 µl. Both rounds were performed
with a "hot-start" procedure by using AmpliTaq Gold (Perkin-Elmer
Life Sciences), followed by a touchdown program (94°C for
30 s, 64°C for 45 s, decreasing by 1°C every second
cycle down to 55°C, 72°C for 45 s, and a further 15
cycles at an annealing temperature of 55°C). PCR products
were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, and the sizes
of the fragments were assessed by image analysis (Image Station
440CF; Kodak Digital Science, NEN Life Science Products, Boston,
Mass.). Both the presence of 30- and 69-bp deletions and the
number of 33-bp repeats were predicted by the fragment size
as calculated by the software. This approach proved to be highly
sensitive and specific in detecting different LMP-1 variants
from natural EBV isolates, even when present in small amounts
(1 to 5 molecules per reaction [data not shown]). In particular,
compared with a low-constant-annealing-temperature PCR, higher
rates of LMP-1 detection of both single and multiple coinfecting
variants were observed in different series (not shown), indicating
that this PCR protocol may overcome possible obstacles to PCR
amplification related to the sequence heterogeneity of this
region.
LMP-1 deletion mutants are significantly more prevalent in HIV-HL than in HIV-related reactive lymphadenopathies.
Twenty-nine of the 31 informative HIV-HL cases (93.5%) carried the 30-bp (28 cases) or the 69-bp (1 case) LMP-1 deletion variants, confirming also in this series the high prevalence of LMP-1 deletions previously found in patients with this disease (2, 8, 23) (Table 1). In 17 of the 28 cases carrying the 30-bp deletion (60.7%), faint bands corresponding to full-length LMP-1 variants were also detected, although only at low dilutions of template DNA, indicating a likely derivation from EBV-positive bystander B cells. Interestingly, in two cases (HL21 and HL31), both deletion mutants and full-length fragments were invariably found. In one of the two cases carrying a predominant full-length LMP-1 (HL20), a minor variant with the 30-bp deletion was also detected. We have also verified that the high prevalence of LMP-1 deletions detected in HIV-HL cases could also be found in benign lymphoproliferations arising in HIV-infected patients with similar sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, ethnicity, geographic origin, and date of diagnosis). Analysis of 27 cases of HIV-related reactive lymphadenopathy showed a prevalence of LMP-1 deletion variants significantly lower than that in cases of HIV-HL (14 of 27, 51.9%; P < 0.001) but similar to that observed in cases of HIV-unrelated HL (40%) and in normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells from both HIV-infected (54.1%) and HIV-seronegative (55.6%) Italian individuals (10). These findings indicate that the high prevalence of LMP-1 deletions observed in HIV-HL cases does not reflect the distribution of LMP-1 variants in this geographic area. Moreover, our results also rule out the possibility that the reactive lymphoproliferative process per se might increase the production or local recruitment of LMP-1 deletion mutants in HIV-infected individuals.
Patients with HIV-HL are infected by multiple EBV variants, but LMP-1 deletion mutants accumulate within neoplastic tissues.
We also sought to determine whether the high proportion of deletion
mutants found in HIV-HL patients simply reflects the presence
of an LMP-1 deletion mutant strain predominantly infecting these
patients or is rather due to a disease-specific segregation
of deletion variants within HL tissues. To this end, we characterized
the LMP-1 variants in neoplastic and uninvolved tissues (
n =
14) from 10 HIV-HL patients, selected on the basis of tissue
availability (Table
2). Two patients (HL17 and HL30) carried
a 30-bp LMP-1 deletion variant in both involved and uninvolved
tissues (Table
2). Notably, five patients with 30-bp deletions
in the tumor biopsy samples (HL22, HL23, HL27, HL28, and HL29)
carried full-length LMP-1 in all uninvolved tissues investigated.
Two patients with full-length LMP-1 in the HL biopsy samples
(HL18 and HL20) carried a 30-bp LMP-1 deletion variant in three
of four uninvolved samples. Finally, patient HL21 showed codominance
of a 69-bp deletion mutant and full-length LMP-1 in both the
HL biopsy sample and the cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma lesion sample
(Table
2). These findings indicate that the majority of HIV
patients with HL in this study harbored a mixed population of
both full-length and deletion variants of LMP-1, but, in 50%
of these patients, the LMP-1 deletion variant was predominantly
found only in HL tissue.
View this table:
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TABLE 2. Comparative genotypic analysis of LMP-1 variants in neoplastic and nonneoplastic tissues from the same patients with HIV-HLa
|
Results of the characterization of EBV variants detected in
HIV-HL biopsy samples are shown in Table
1. Amplification of
the LMP-1 fragment encompassing the 33-bp repeat region was
successfully performed for 26 HIV-HL cases, demonstrating product
sizes compatible with a repeat number ranging from 4 to 7.5
(confirmed by direct sequencing of gel-purified PCR products
in a fraction of cases [data not shown]). No association was
found between the number of 33-bp repeats and the presence of
the 30-bp deletion (Table
1). A single 33-bp size variant was
detected in 18 cases, whereas an additional band was found in
eight biopsy samples. In seven of the eight biopsy samples,
one of the two 33-bp variants was less represented (as shown
by serial dilutions of template DNA), consistent with a possible
derivation from EBV-positive bystander B cells. Notably, 11
of the 18 patients (66.7%) with a single 33-bp size variant
carried both deletion mutants and full-length LMP-1 in the same
biopsy sample (Table
1). Furthermore, EBV typing (
23) carried
out for 8 of these 11 HIV-HL biopsy samples showed a single
EBV subtype in each of these cases (six cases with EBV type
1 and two cases with EBV type 2). Moreover, a monoclonal EBV
episome was also demonstrated in six of these cases by analysis
of the terminal repeat region (data not shown). The presence
of a single EBV strain was confirmed in 5 of the HIV-HL biopsy
samples with a single virus subtype and one 33-bp size variant
but showing both full-length and deletion variants of LMP-1
(HL7, HL17, HL21, HL30, and HL31). In fact, subcloning and sequencing
of the EBNA-2 U2-IR2 domain (nt 48170 to 48339 of the strain
B95.8 genome) showed that all subclones (at least 10) from each
of these cases had identical EBNA-2 sequences. Although this
EBNA-2 region is not highly polymorphic, strain-specific polymorphisms
were detected in three of these cases (Table
1). Taken together,
the results of our multilocus analysis are consistent with the
possibility that, in HIV-HL patients, LMP-1 deletion variants
may originate from endogenous EBV strains carrying full-length
LMP-1.
H-RSCs of HIV-HL harbor both deletion and full-length variants of LMP-1, suggesting a common origin of these variants.
To identify molecular signatures supporting the possible derivation of the deletion variant from an ancestor EBV strain with a full-length LMP-1, the C terminus of the LMP-1 gene, comprising the 33-bp repeat and the deletion regions (nt 168209 to 168649), was subcloned into pGEM-T vector from five HIV-HL biopsy samples (HL5, HL7, HL21, HL30, and HL31). Plasmid DNA was purified using a QIAprep 8 Turbo Miniprep kit (QIAGEN, Studio City, Calif.) and sequenced on both DNA strands by using SP6 and T7 primers and the dye terminator protocol on an ABI 310 genetic analyzer (Perkin-Elmer Corp., Foster City, Calif.). Only subclones carrying deletions of LMP-1 could be obtained in patients HL5, HL7, and HL30, consistent with the abundance of this variant in these HL biopsy samples. Conversely, subclones carrying full-length or deletion variants of LMP-1 were detected in both cases HL21 and HL31. Notably, subclones of each of these dual-variant cases had the same number of internal 33-bp repeats and shared some hallmark mutations (Fig. 1), suggesting their likely derivation from the clonal EBV infecting H-RSCs.
To obtain further evidence that H-RSCs of HIV-HL may harbor
clonally related EBV variants with both deletion and full-length
variants of LMP-1, a similar analysis was carried out with microdissected
H-RSCs from cases HL21 and HL31 (Fig.
2). DNA obtained from
20 CD30
+ H-RSCs isolated by laser microdissection was preamplified
by the improved primer extension preamplification protocol (
7)
and used as a template for PCR amplification. For both cases,
the analysis consistently detected both deletion and full-length
variants of LMP-1, carrying the same number of 33-bp repeats.
Moreover, sequencing of LMP-1 subclones derived from pooled
H-RSCs confirmed the presence of shared mutations (Fig.
1).
Single-cell analysis performed with samples from patients HL21
and HL31 by using 10 H-RSCs/sample disclosed the presence of
both deletion and nondeletion variants in three and two individual
H-RSCs, respectively (data not shown), ruling out the possibility
that different H-RSCs from the same specimen might harbor different
EBV variants and further strengthening the hypothesis of a common
origin of the two LMP-1 variants.
The results of the present study demonstrate that the high prevalence
of LMP-1 deletion mutants detected in HIV-HL is independent
of the geographic distribution of EBV strains and provide further
evidence indicating that these LMP-1 deletion variants are strictly
associated with HIV-HL of the Italian population. EBV genotypes
with LMP-1 deletions may infect humans as independent variants,
or, alternatively, these EBV variants may arise as a result
of inter- or intrastrain recombination during productive EBV
replication (
30). Considering that in both HIV-seronegative
and HIV-infected Italian individuals the prevalence of LMP-1
deletions is near 50%, we can in good faith assume that, in
about half of the patients with HIV-HL, the presence of the
deletion variant is likely due to a de novo infection of H-RSC
precursors by an EBV strain carrying an LMP-1 deletion. Notwithstanding,
we herein provide evidence suggesting the possibility that,
at least in a proportion of HIV-HL cases, the deletion variant
may also derive from an ancestor EBV with full-length LMP-1.
This conclusion is particularly supported by the detection of
both LMP-1 variants in microdissected H-RSCs from two cases,
suggesting that the LMP-1 deletion mutant probably originates
within tumor cells in vivo. These results are in keeping with
those recently reported by Kim et al. (
18), who detected a mixed
pattern of LMP-1 variants in single H-RSCs from two cases of
HIV-unrelated classical HL. Considering that the EBV infecting
H-RSCs is strictly latent, it is unlikely that in these cells
LMP-1 deletions might originate from intra- or interstrain recombination
events during virus replication, in contrast to what was observed
in patients with oral hairy leukoplakia (
31). Our findings rather
support the hypothesis that deletion variants can be the result
of the progressive accumulation of mutational events at the
C-terminal LMP-1 hot spot from a single virus strain occurring
during latent infection. Although further studies are required
to define the mechanisms underlying the generation of LMP-1
deletions within H-RSCs, the strict association of these variants
with HIV-HL suggests a role for disease-related phenomena. As
previously hypothesized (
3), the generation of LMP-1 deletions
could be favored by processes, such as somatic hypermutation
or immunoglobulin class switching, that are associated with
the persistent germinal-center activity that characterizes HIV-infected
individuals. In this scenario, the high prevalence of LMP-1
deletions observed in patients with HIV-HL could be due to a
possible selective advantage of variants carrying the deletion
and/or specific mutations within the LMP-1 C terminus, as suggested
by some functional data (
6,
16,
27,
28). Nevertheless, it remains
to be determined whether still unidentified host- and/or disease-related
factors may have a role in favoring the generation of LMP-1
deletion variants in patients with HIV-HL. Elucidation of this
issue will allow a better understanding of the pathogenesis
of this malignancy, giving useful insights on the possible roles
played by different LMP-1 variants.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Elena Da Cin for her skillful technical assistance.
This study was supported in part by grants from the European Community (FP5 contract QLK3-CT-2002-02029; to R.D.), from the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) (to R.D.), from MIUR, Progetto Strategico "Oncologia" (SP/4), Legge 449/97 (no. 02.00268.ST97), and from "III Programma Nazionale di Ricerca sull'AIDSProgetto Patologia Clinica e Terapia dell'AIDS," Rome, Italy; A.A.L. and P.Z. are recipients of fellowships from the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Immunovirology and Biotherapy Unit, Department of Pre-Clinical and Epidemiological Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, National Cancer Institute, via Pedemontana Occidentale 12, 33081 Aviano (PN) Italy. Phone: 39 0434 659660. Fax: 39 0434 659659. E-mail:
rdolcetti{at}cro.it.


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Journal of Virology, February 2005, p. 2643-2649, Vol. 79, No. 4
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.4.2643-2649.2005
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