Skip to main content

The effect of chemotherapeutics on cell-to-cell transport of HTLV-1 and the p8 protein through membrane nanotubes

The tunneling nanotube (TNT) is a novel type of cell-to-cell communicator, 50-2 nm in diameter, F-actin containing structure connecting two or more cells. TNTs have been observed in a variety of cells to transport different components such as mitochondria, cell membrane components, multi-resistance genes and pathogens (like retroviruses and bacteria). The exact molecular mechanisms behind TNT formation are still unclear. HTLV-1 hijacks TNT-like structures for its transmission through the viral encoded p8 protein that augments the number and length of these TNT-like structures to favor virus transmission among T-cells. We have previously investigated TNTs in the heterogeneous and aggressive blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and found that the chemotherapeutic cytarabine (AraC) down-regulates TNT production in AML cells. Thus we wish to apply this knowledge to investigate whether AraC may exert a similar effect in T-cells and monocytes resulting in decreased HTLV-1 transmission. Furthermore we will measure the drug's effect on the transfer of the p8 protein to uninfected cells such as primary PBMCs, Jurkat T cells and THP-1 cells. We have generated Jurkat T and THP-1 cells stably expressing mem-GFP and mem-Cherry proteins for live-cell visualization of TNT and TNT-like structures by fluorescence microscopy. The results will be presented.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M Omsland.

Rights and permissions

This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Omsland, M., Pise-Masison, C., Gjertsen, B. et al. The effect of chemotherapeutics on cell-to-cell transport of HTLV-1 and the p8 protein through membrane nanotubes. Retrovirology 12 (Suppl 1), P8 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-12-S1-P8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-12-S1-P8

Keywords

  • Acute Myeloid Leukemia
  • Cytarabine
  • Virus Transmission
  • Uninfected Cell
  • Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell