Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 tat enhances interleukin-2 promoter activity through synergism with phorbol ester and calcium-mediated activation of the NF-AT cis-regulatory motif

Abstract Interference with T cell activation signals by Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) gene products is suggested to contribute to the impairment of immune functions observed in AIDS. lnterleukin-2 (IL-2) and HIV share common stimulatory signals triggered during T cell activation. The role of HIV tat, which is the main enhancing factor for viral LTR, in the regulation of IL-2 gene transcription has been studied following transient expression of the tat gene in phorbol ester and calcium ionophore-activated Jurkat cells transfected with IL-2 promoter-chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter constructs. We observed that tat increased the IL-2 promoter transcriptional activity in response to phorbol ester and ionomycin. This tat-dependent synergism mapped to the (−279 to −263 bp) NFAT motif of the IL-2 enhancer, which was sufficient to be transactivated by tat. Our data suggest that tat links T cell activating signals to the shared IL-2 and HIV regulation. This may play a role in the early phase of HIV infection.