An activity specified by the osteosarcoma line U2OS can substitute functionally for ICP0, a major regulatory protein of herpes simplex virus type 1.

Among the five immediate-early regulatory proteins of herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1, only ICP0 is capable of activating all kinetic classes of viral genes. Consistent with its broad transactivating activity, ICP0 plays a major role in enhancing the reactivation of HSV from latency both in vivo and in vitro. Although not essential for viral replication, ICP0 confers a significant growth advantage on the virus, especially at low multiplicities of infection. In this report we describe the expression of a novel activity by the osteosarcoma cell line U2OS that can substitute functionally for ICP0. Compared with Vero cells, both U2OS cells and cells of the ICP0-expressing line 0-28 significantly enhanced the plating efficiency of an ICP0 null mutant, 7134. In contrast, the plating efficiencies of the wild-type virus in all three cell types were similar. Single-step growth experiments demonstrated that the yield of 7134 in U2OS cells was severalfold higher than that in 0-28 cells and about 100-fold higher than that in Vero cells. In order to identify the viral genes whose expression is enhanced by the activity in U2OS cells, levels of expression of selected viral proteins in extracts of Vero and U2OS cells were compared by Western blot (immunoblot) analysis following low-multiplicity infection. At a multiplicity of 0.1 PFU per cell, the levels of expression of the immediate-early protein ICP4 and the early protein gD in 7134-infected U2OS cells were significantly higher than those in 7134-infected Vero cells. When infections were carried out at a multiplicity of 1 PFU per cell, however, no major differences in the levels of expression of these proteins in U2OS and Vero cells were observed. Cycloheximide reversal experiments demonstrated that the cellular activity expressed in U2OS cells that promotes high-level expression of ICP4 is not synthesized de novo but appears to exist as a preformed protein(s). To confirm this observation and to determine whether, like immediate-early genes, early, delayed-early, and late viral genes are also responsive to the cellular activity, transient-expression assays were performed. The results of these tests demonstrated that basal levels of expression from immediate-early, early, and delayed-early promoters, but not that from a late promoter, were significantly higher in U2OS cells than in Vero cells and that this enhancement occurred in the absence of viral proteins.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)