Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Nuclear localization of Merkel cell polyomavirus large T antigen in Merkel cell carcinoma

2010; Elsevier BV; Volume: 398; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.virol.2009.12.024

1096-0341

Tomoyuki Nakamura, Yuko Sato, Daisuke Watanabe, Hideki Ito, Nozomi Shimonohara, Takahiro Tsuji, Noriko Nakajima, Yoshio Suzuki, Koma Matsuo, Hidemi Nakagawa, Tetsutaro Sata, Harutaka Katano,

Antenna Design and Analysis

To clarify whether mutations in the large T gene encoded by Merkel cell polyomavirus affect the expression and function of large T antigen in Merkel cell carcinoma cases, we investigated the expression of large T antigen in vitro and in vivo. Immunohistochemistry using a rabbit polyclonal antibody revealed that large T antigen was expressed in the nuclei of Merkel cell carcinoma cells with Merkel cell polyomavirus infection. Deletion mutant analyses identified an Arg–Lys–Arg–Lys sequence (amino acids 277–280) as a nuclear localization signal in large T antigen. Sequence analyses revealed that there were no mutations in the nuclear localization signal in any of the eleven Merkel cell polyomavirus strains examined. Furthermore, stop codons were not observed in the upstream of the nuclear localization signal in any of the Merkel cell carcinoma cases examined. These data suggest that the nuclear localization signal is highly conserved and functional in Merkel cell carcinoma cases.