Repression of Mdm2 Expression by the Kshv Orf50 Protein

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the main cause of Kaposi's sarcoma on the patients with immunocomromise. Both the latent and lytic stages of viral life cycles are important for the tumorigenesis. The immediate early gene ORF50 is a lytic switch protein as it induces the viral lytic reactivation by targeting the early genes in a cascade manner. It is important to elucidate how the ORF50 gene is regulated. Our previous work revealed that the oncoprotein MDM2 could stabilize the viral latent stage by down regulation of the ORF50. Conversely, we found that the amount of MDM2 protein decreased prominently as the virus entering lytic stage. Further experiments showed the P53 binding site of MDM2 promoter was responsible for repressive effect by ORF50. In this project, we want to elucidate the mechanism how the MDM2 is repressed by ORF50. This project helps us to inspect the interaction between cells and viruses and provide a further insight into the tumorigenesis.

Project ID:PC10907-1715
External Project ID:MOST109-2314-B182-066