Steroids inhibit tumor promoting agent induced Epstein-Barr virus early antigens in Raji cells.

Four steroids and one protease inhibitor were evaluated for their effects on 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA)-induced and Epstein-Barr virus-induced early antigens (EBV-EA) in Raji cells. Continuous treatment with dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone and cortisone inhibited TPA-induced EBV-EA to varying degrees, but the protease inhibitor N-alpha-p-tosyl L-lysine chloromethyl ketone-HCl (TLCK) had no significant effect. None of the agents tested inhibited EBV- induced EA. In addition, the effect of the steroids was reversible since the removal of these agents resulted in recovery of the percentage of EBV-EA-positive cells in TPA-treated cultures. These results were in agreement with the in vivo experiments of other investigators, who demonstrated inhibition of tumor promotion with steroids. Since TLCK failed to inhibit TPA-induced EA, it is unlikely that induction of EA by TPA is the result of production of proteases.