EBV BART MicroRNAs Target Multiple Pro-apoptotic Cellular Genes to Promote Epithelial Cell Survival

Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous human γ-herpesvirus that can give rise to cancers of both B-cell and epithelial cell origin. In EBV-induced cancers of epithelial origin, including nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs) and gastric carcinomas, the latent EBV genome expresses very high levels of a cluster of 22 viral pre-miRNAs, called the miR-BARTs, and these have previously been shown to confer a degree of resistance to pro-apoptotic drugs. Here, we present an analysis of the ability of individual miR-BART pre-miRNAs to confer an anti-apoptotic phenotype and report that five of the 22 miR-BARTs demonstrate this ability. We next used photoactivatable ribonucleoside-enhanced crosslinking and immunoprecipitation (PAR-CLIP) to globally identify the mRNA targets bound by these miR-BARTs in latently infected epithelial cells. This led to the identification of ten mRNAs encoding pro-apoptotic mRNA targets, all of which could be confirmed as valid targets for the five anti-apoptotic miR-BARTs by indicator assays and by demonstrating that ectopic expression of physiological levels of the relevant miR-BART in the epithelial cell line AGS resulted in a significant repression of the target mRNA as well as the encoded protein product. Using RNA interference, we further demonstrated that knockdown of at least seven of these cellular miR-BART target transcripts phenocopies the anti-apoptotic activity seen upon expression of the relevant EBV miR-BART miRNA. Together, these observations validate previously published reports arguing that the miR-BARTs can exert an anti-apoptotic effect in EBV-infected epithelial cells and provide a mechanistic explanation for this activity. Moreover, these results identify and validate a substantial number of novel mRNA targets for the anti-apoptotic miR-BARTs.

Author Summary

One important innate immune response to viral infection is apoptosis, also called programmed cell death, whereby the infected cells commit suicide rather than serve as factories for virus production. As a result, many viruses have developed strategies to inhibit apoptosis. Here, we demonstrate that five of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) miR-BART microRNAs that are expressed in EBV-transformed epithelial cell tumors display anti-apoptotic activity. We have identified ten cellular mRNAs that are bound and downregulated by one of these five anti-apoptotic microRNAs and show that this downregulation can explain the observed reduction in apoptosis in miR-BART-expressing cells. Together, these data demonstrate that the EBV miR-BARTs can help sustain latently EBV-infected cells in the face of pro-apoptotic innate immune signals and this may explain the resistance to DNA damaging agents, including chemotherapeutics and radiation, seen in a subset of EBV-induced epithelial tumors.