The responsiveness of human papillomavirus upstream regulatory regions to herpes simplex virus immediate early proteins.

We have tested the responsiveness of the upstream regulatory regions (URR) of human papillomaviruses (HPV) to transactivation by the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) immediate early proteins ICP4 (Vmw175) and ICP0 (Vmw110), using recombinant plasmids which contain URRs of HPV 1, 11 or 16 upstream of an SV40-promoted CAT gene. Transfection of the HPV-CAT plasmids into mouse cells expressing a temperature-sensitive ICP4 protein enabled us to demonstrate that ICP4 enhances transcription of the HPV 1 and 16 URRs, but not of the HPV 11 URR. Cotransfection of the HPV CAT plasmids with a plasmid encoding ICP0 indicated that only the URR of HPV 16 responded to this protein, and that the response was host cell dependent.