Induction of sensitivity to the cytotoxic action of tumor necrosis factor alpha by adenovirus E1A is independent of transformation and transcriptional activation.

We have previously shown that expression of the adenovirus E1A 12S or 13S products in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts induces susceptibility to the cytotoxic actions of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha). A large number of studies have mapped the multiple biological functions of the 12S and 13S products to three highly conserved regions (CR) within the E1A sequence. Here we used plasmids coding for E1A deletion and point mutants in these regions to generate target cell lines for TNF alpha cytotoxicity assays to determine which regions and functions are necessary for the induction of TNF alpha sensitivity. Expression of CR1 was required for the induction of TNF alpha sensitivity. This finding did not reflect a requirement for transforming or transcriptional repression activity, since some mutants that were defective in both of these properties were able to induce TNF alpha sensitivity. CR2 transformation-defective point mutants, but not a CR2/3 region deletion mutant, were also able to induce sensitivity. In addition, NIH 3T3 cells expressing the retroviral transcription activators tat from human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and tax from human T-lymphotropic virus type I were not sensitive to TNF alpha. However, the possibility that E1A-mediated transcriptional activation can augment the induction of TNF alpha sensitivity is not excluded. Comparison of data from previous biological studies with the TNF alpha cytotoxicity assays presented here suggested that the mechanism by which E1A induces sensitivity to TNF alpha in NIH 3T3 cells is independent of many of the known E1A biological functions, including transformation in cooperation with ras, immortalization, induction of DNA synthesis in quiescent cells, and transcriptional repression. A novel E1A-mediated effect may be involved, although our data do not exclude the possibility that sensitization to TNF alpha is mediated through E1A binding to cellular proteins.