Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to c-jun inhibits proliferation of transformed NIH 3T3 cells induced by E5a of HPV-11.

E5a of HPV-11 is a transforming oncogene. Previously, we had shown that the E5a gene is required only for the initiation of transformation; c-jun might be involved in the maintenance of transformation. In this study, we exposed E5a transformed NIH 3T3 cells to antisense oligodeoxynucleotides complementary to the 24 nucleotides corresponding to the translation initiation site of the c-jun gene, and examined the effects of this treatment on cell proliferation. Results show that antisense c-jun oligodeoxynucleotides could repress c-jun production and inhibit cell proliferation in E5a transformed cells.