The human neurotropic polyomavirus JC (JCV) induces a broad range of neural-origin tumors in experimental animals and has been repeatedly detected in several human cancers, most notably neural crest-origin tumors including medulloblastomas and glioblastomas. The oncogenic activity of JCV is attributed to the viral early gene products, large T and small t antigens, as evident by results from in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal studies. Recently, we have shown that alternative splicing factor, SF2/ASF, has the capacity to exert a negative effect on transcription and splicing of JCV genes in glial cells through direct association with a specific DNA motif within the viral promoter region. Here, we demonstrate that SF2/ASF suppresses large T antigen expression in JCV-transformed tumor cell lines, and the expression of SF2/ASF in such tumor cells thereby inhibits the transforming capacity of the viral tumor antigens. Moreover, down-regulation of SF2/ASF in viral-transformed tumor cell lines induces growth and proliferation of the tumor cells. Mapping analysis of the minimal peptide domain of SF2/ASF responsible for JCV promoter silencing and tumor suppressor activity suggests that amino acid residues 76 to 100 of SF2/ASF are functionally sufficient to suppress the growth of the tumor cells. These observations demonstrate a role for SF2/ASF in JCV-mediated cellular transformation and provide a new avenue of research to pathogenic mechanisms of JCV-induced tumors.
Keywords: JC virus; SF2/ASF; transcription; tumor antigen.