Cellular and viral trans-acting factors modulate N-myc2 promoter activity in woodchuck liver tumors.

Activation of the N-myc2 oncogene by integration of woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) DNA is a central event in woodchuck liver oncogenesis. In this study, we have evaluated the influence of several cellular and viral trans-acting factors and mediators of inflammation on N-myc2 promoter activity in hepatoma cell lines. Ets oncoproteins, including Ets1, Ets2 and PEA3 efficiently activated a chimeric N-myc2 promoter/luciferase reporter gene. By electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we show that Etsl and Ets2 proteins can efficiently bind two consensus Ets sites located within a 59 bp sequence upstream of the N-myc2 transcription start site. Site-directed mutagenesis of these Ets-binding motifs abolished transactivation of the N-myc2 promoter by Ets proteins. Addition of interleukin-6 (IL-6) induced a weak but reproducible activation of the N-myc2 promoter, while IL-1 was ineffective. We further show that the N-myc2 promoter can be transactivated by the hepadna-virus X protein, and that distal promoter sequences are required for both IL-6 and X responsiveness. Similar effects of these factors were observed in the context of the N-myc2 promoter activated by WHV cis-regulatory elements. In view of the high-level expression of the N-myc2 oncogene in most woodchuck liver tumors, the Ets oncoproteins, inflammation-associated cytokine IL-6 and the viral X transactivator might play important roles in hepadnavirus-associated tumorigenesis.